Speaker 1: Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the dollop of
Speaker 1: Cream in your Butternut Squash Puzzle bisc I am your host,
Speaker 1: AJ Jacobs, and today's guest is the terrific Charlotte Wilder,
Speaker 1: sportswriter and host of the show Oddball, the weirdest show
Speaker 1: about the NBA, according to Charlotte herself. Welcome Charlotte, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much.
Speaker 2: Aj. It's fun being on every day this week because
Speaker 2: I get to tell people to support me in various
Speaker 2: different ways. So if anyone feels like subscribing to my substack,
Speaker 2: the Wilder Things dot substack dot com, but by all means,
Speaker 2: who am I to stop them?
Speaker 1: Well that's a good segue, because today's puzzle is actually
Speaker 1: about your name, Wilder. We're calling this puzzle Bewilder Wilder,
Speaker 1: which we hope to do momentarily. We hope that you
Speaker 1: will eventually figure it out, but we want you to
Speaker 1: be bewildered for a minute. And the name is actually
Speaker 1: a clue to how this puzzle works. I'm going to
Speaker 1: give you clues to two word phrases, and the first
Speaker 1: word is going to start with the letters B E,
Speaker 1: and the second word is the same as the first word,
Speaker 1: but with the bee removed. So, for instance, if I
Speaker 1: said this is what it's called, would you perplex the
Speaker 1: sports writer with the first name of Charlotte, you might
Speaker 1: say the wilder wilder, wilder Wilder. Notice it doesn't always rhyme.
Speaker 1: So that's a little all right, And this one it's
Speaker 1: a little more challenging. But I think you're up for it.
Speaker 1: We've seen you, we've seen you thrive. Okay, are you
Speaker 1: ready for number one?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: This is a commercial for those little round things you
Speaker 1: find on a rosary or a necklace or an apicus.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I think I've got it. Do you want
Speaker 2: me to talk through it or do you want me
Speaker 2: to say it?
Speaker 1: Go ahead and say it, be crazy.
Speaker 2: I think it's a beat ad.
Speaker 1: It is a beat ad. You got it all right,
Speaker 1: nicely done, nicely done.
Speaker 2: It took me a second, I did. Momentarily. My mind
Speaker 2: went blank when you said rosary, and I was like,
Speaker 2: what is that? Is that a rotary? And then I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, right, it's the thing that the beads
Speaker 2: on it, which led me to.
Speaker 1: And I know that you love abacus's or abakai, So
Speaker 1: I do all right. This is what you might say
Speaker 1: to someone if you want them to start drinking their
Speaker 1: glass of booze made by Bombay, Sapphire or Beefeeder or
Speaker 1: Tanker Ray.
Speaker 2: Well, given the brands you just mentioned, I would imagine
Speaker 2: that the only thing they could do in that case
Speaker 2: AJ would begin gin.
Speaker 1: Begin gin exactly. She was not bewildered for long. This
Speaker 1: is a car rental place owned by butt Head's pal.
Speaker 2: Okay, no, she's but heads pow would be Beavis exactly.
Speaker 2: So one would imagine that if you take off the
Speaker 2: B Beavis vis. Oh is it BA.
Speaker 1: B very close? Your vivis is spelled with an A,
Speaker 1: not just B E v I S B e A
Speaker 1: v I S.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: That's a good one, thank you. Well, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: we are sponsored by Avis, so we were there.
Speaker 3: You go.
Speaker 1: This is a ground stroke in tennis that has done
Speaker 1: previous to all other ground strokes.
Speaker 2: Okay, so groundstroke, I thought forehand, but that does not
Speaker 2: start with a B. But it is. But it is
Speaker 2: a beforehand forehand exactly.
Speaker 1: You went the other way, all right? Two more quick ones.
Speaker 1: These are muscle pains you feel after a day of
Speaker 1: going to Sandy Ocean Front spots, so you might get
Speaker 1: them from swimming or its sun tent. She sounds got it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds like it's a beach ach a beach.
Speaker 1: Well, it's actually the plural. You're going to many of
Speaker 1: these ocean fronts.
Speaker 2: Oats, beaches aches.
Speaker 1: Exactly beaches aches because beach does not have an e
Speaker 1: on the end of it, so he had to go plural.
Speaker 2: Can you tell, by the way, can you tell that
Speaker 2: my weakness here is spelling?
Speaker 1: Well, you shouldn't have to know how to spell beavis,
Speaker 1: that is not but I.
Speaker 2: Should know how to spell beach an eight, you know,
Speaker 2: like my Twitter bio for a while. Actually, when I
Speaker 2: first joined Twitter a million years ago, was I'm a writer,
Speaker 2: not a speller, because I'm I'm very bad at spelling,
Speaker 2: but I you know, somehow managed to strength and words
Speaker 2: together every once in a while.
Speaker 1: You do a great and you're a great writer and yes,
Speaker 1: a mediocre speller. You were born in the wrong century.
Speaker 1: My my new book or upcoming book is about the
Speaker 1: constitutional era, and you can just spell however the hell
Speaker 1: you want really back then. Yeah, there, that's great because
Speaker 1: that's what I do.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, there you go. You are you're just an
Speaker 1: early American, all right. Last one is a boxing venue
Speaker 1: in an Alaskan street. So a like a body of
Speaker 1: water up in Alaska. This would be a boxing venue
Speaker 1: where you might go.
Speaker 2: Okay, so an Alaskan straight. My thought was feured, but
Speaker 2: that's very Norwegian, so I'm trying to think boxing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say I would recommend going boxing venue first.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, so it's it's the bearing ring.
Speaker 1: The bearing ring. There we go, exactly nicely done. You
Speaker 1: did great, you got them all, no problem, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. You're spelling disability, so congratulations. Where can people
Speaker 1: find more of your your great writings slash not great spelling?
Speaker 2: The Wilder Things dot substack dot com?
Speaker 1: You would which I think you have. It's something like
Speaker 1: it's Charlotte's Web you just live in it? Is that
Speaker 1: the catch?
Speaker 2: When someone else says it, it sounds I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: is that really what I came up with? Huh, Maybe
Speaker 2: I'll workshop it.
Speaker 1: But no, we like it at the Butler. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of thing we like. Are you a fan of
Speaker 1: the book Charlotte's Web?
Speaker 2: Yes, huge fan. I don't think I was named after
Speaker 2: the spider, but I also don't think I was not
Speaker 2: named after the spider. It's how I'll put it.
Speaker 1: Got Yeah, it is a lovely book. I actually I
Speaker 1: have a hot take on Stuart Little, another book by
Speaker 1: Ebe White, which I really do not like because I
Speaker 1: think Stuart Little was a horrible little rodent.
Speaker 2: Uh, it's a weird book. Took people don't talking to
Speaker 2: It's like this lady had a mouse, like her son
Speaker 2: was a mouse.
Speaker 1: Right. I know that is not discussed, like that would
Speaker 1: be on the front page of you know, TMC to
Speaker 1: every sure and so yeah, that is underplayed. But he's
Speaker 1: also very rude to his parents and just takes off
Speaker 1: and doesn't call it is I have lots of moral
Speaker 1: issues with uh, with Stuart Little, all right. So before
Speaker 1: we wrap up a puzzle for the puzzlers at home,
Speaker 1: an extra credit this one. It's actually quite a little tricky,
Speaker 1: but I think it's it's worthwhile. It's actually three words,
Speaker 1: so it's not two words. It's a Mexican dish that's
Speaker 1: wrapped in a cornusque and it's made by a very
Speaker 1: passive man. So what would be a Mexican dish wrapped
Speaker 1: in a coronusk made by a passive man? You will
Speaker 1: get the answer next episode, and please don't forget to
Speaker 1: subscribe to the Puzzler Podcast. If you're liking it, please
Speaker 1: tell your friends and we will meet you here tomorrow
Speaker 1: for more puzzling puzzles. Then will puddle you pugglingly.
Speaker 3: Hello puzzlers, this is Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer,
Speaker 3: here with the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
Speaker 3: We played a pie Day game in which you had
Speaker 3: to insert PI into different words. Your extra credit clue
Speaker 3: was start with a six letter term used in science
Speaker 3: fiction for inhabitants of Earth and end up with a
Speaker 3: species of small turtle that is the mascot for the
Speaker 3: University of Maryland, and that would be tryin t r
Speaker 3: RN and terra pin the University of Maryland Terrapins. Hope
Speaker 3: you enjoyed it, and I hope you catch you here
Speaker 3: next time on the Puzzler Podcast. Thanks for playing along
Speaker 3: with the team here at the Puzzler. I'm Greg Pliska,
Speaker 3: your chief puzzle Officer. Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman
Speaker 3: and Adam Neuhause of New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman
Speaker 3: of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Jody Abergan
Speaker 3: and Britney Brown of Roulette Productions. Our associate producer is
Speaker 3: Andrea Schoenberg.
Speaker 4: The Puzzler with AJ Jacobs is a co production with
Speaker 4: New House Ideas and is distributed by Ostriches Adapt No.
Speaker 4: It's distributed by iHeart Podcasts. So though Ostriches do in
Speaker 4: fact adapt, don't they.
Speaker 5: If you want to know more about puzzling puzzles, please
Speaker 5: check out the book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs, a
Speaker 5: history of puzzles that The New York Times called fun
Speaker 5: and funny. It features an original puzzle hunt by yours Truly,
Speaker 5: and is available wherever you get your books and puzzlers.
Speaker 5: For For all your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler
Speaker 5: dot com.
Speaker 4: See you there,