Speaker 1: Hello, Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the spa Jets
Speaker 1: in your Puzzle hot Tub. I am your host, AJ Jacobs,
Speaker 1: and today's guest is the great Jeremy Hobson, Radio journalist, podcaster,
Speaker 1: Host of the Middle with Jeremy Hobson, found on podcasts
Speaker 1: and on NPR. Welcome Jeremy, AJ.
Speaker 2: It's so great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: We are delighted to have you. We love your shows.
Speaker 1: It's I believe, correct me if I'm wrong. It's an
Speaker 1: antidote to extremism. It's about the middle of the political spectrum,
Speaker 1: the middle of the country, the idea of meeting in
Speaker 1: the middle, all those middle things.
Speaker 3: Yes, you've done a very good job of describing it. Yes,
Speaker 3: what we say is we're bringing the voices of the geographic, political,
Speaker 3: and philosophical middle into the national conversation every week.
Speaker 1: Got it, but not middle Equality of high quality.
Speaker 2: Exactly, very high quality, exactly.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite facts about your show is that
Speaker 1: you advertise it as starting at eight Central time, nine
Speaker 1: Eastern instead of the usual starting with the Eastern. I
Speaker 1: love that well.
Speaker 3: I grew up in champagn or Bana, Illinois, and it
Speaker 3: was my whole life used to hearing on every television
Speaker 3: show that's ten thirty Eastern, nine to thirty Central on CBS,
Speaker 3: And now I get to say Central time time.
Speaker 1: Yes, screw the Eastern time. I love it. What about
Speaker 1: starting with Mountain time, that's another throw.
Speaker 3: But if we do the show live from the Mountain
Speaker 3: time zone, babe, we'll start it from MASI.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Well, moving on to the puzzle. Today's
Speaker 1: puzzle is called in honor of view Middle American Charades.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Now this is not charades where I acted out because
Speaker 1: it's a podcast that might be a little difficult. Instead
Speaker 1: is literary charades, which is the original type of charades
Speaker 1: back in the seventeen hundreds France, where they would have
Speaker 1: poems or riddles where they would clue each syllable. So
Speaker 1: it's all about the syllables adding up to a phrase.
Speaker 1: So in this case, I'm going to give you clues
Speaker 1: to syllables and all of when you add up all
Speaker 1: the syllables, the answers are going to be Midwestern states
Speaker 1: in honor of your show, The Middle Okay, Now you
Speaker 1: may get the state before the final clue, but I
Speaker 1: would beg of you to refrain from saying it until
Speaker 1: the end. All right, this is an example. If I
Speaker 1: were to give you, this would be for the state
Speaker 1: where you were born. The clue would be a synonym
Speaker 1: for sick plus a synonym for irritate. So that would
Speaker 1: be the synonym for sick is ill and synonym for
Speaker 1: irritate is Anoi. And you put them together, and you've
Speaker 1: got your home state Illinois.
Speaker 3: Thankfully pronounce the way it should be and not the
Speaker 3: way some people say with Illinois, thinking that the s
Speaker 3: is pronounced, which it is not.
Speaker 2: I assure you.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, are you sure? Yeah? It's Illinois. Interesting? So
Speaker 1: is it French? Is that where they got it? Illoa?
Speaker 2: It's probably probably a Native American word.
Speaker 1: I would have guessed, Oh interesting. Okay, all right. First one,
Speaker 1: a racket sport plus a mediocre grade. A racket sport
Speaker 1: plus a mediocre grade. Oh he's shaking his head.
Speaker 3: The racket sport I would assume is tennis, Yes, and
Speaker 3: the mediocre grade a C.
Speaker 2: What I got here? You go? Physics? Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: I like your vulnerability. Thank you for telling us. All right. Next,
Speaker 1: something small plus a bubbly drink, Something small plus a
Speaker 1: bubbly drink.
Speaker 3: The something small maybe would be mini and the bubbly
Speaker 3: drink soda, although in Minnesota they would probably call it pop,
Speaker 3: so then it would be minipop. But yes, in this
Speaker 3: case we'll say Minnesota.
Speaker 1: I love it minute pop. I'm gonna say that's the answer,
Speaker 1: nicely done. What a priest wears around his neck, plus
Speaker 1: another name for a car, what a priest wears around
Speaker 1: or if I suppose there are female priests in some denominations.
Speaker 3: As a person who is not raised in the church,
Speaker 3: this what a I would think a cross, But that
Speaker 3: can't be it.
Speaker 1: Well, it's just the very basic color there it is exactly, okay.
Speaker 1: And another name for a car.
Speaker 2: Oh, Colorado, Okay, Colorado.
Speaker 3: But the other name for the car is a auto
Speaker 3: caller auto.
Speaker 2: There we go, okay, exactly.
Speaker 1: You got a second, you got all right? There you go,
Speaker 1: all right? We got two or three more if you're
Speaker 1: up for it. This is a small budget film plus
Speaker 1: a magazine editor named Winter War.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I'm going to say the small budget film
Speaker 3: is an indie film which leaves us with only one option,
Speaker 3: and then Anna Winter so Indiana.
Speaker 1: In the end, you are good, You're nailing these no problems?
Speaker 1: All right? What about I'll raise it a little and
Speaker 1: give you their three clues. In this one, this is
Speaker 1: a utensil for beating eggs plus Genghis Khan's last name
Speaker 1: plus one of seven deadly things.
Speaker 3: So the wisk would be to beat the eggs, So
Speaker 3: wisk Genghis Khan's last name being con and then a sin.
Speaker 1: There you go, You got it. This is Jeopardy champion
Speaker 1: Jennings plus what you might do with a nice shirt,
Speaker 1: plus something you need to open a.
Speaker 3: Lock, so Ken Jennings. So and then you would tuck
Speaker 3: in your shirt. Yes, And what's the last part of it?
Speaker 1: Something you need to open a lock or the Dartmouth
Speaker 1: School of Business. Ken, Oh no, that's the middle one.
Speaker 1: There we go, Kentucky and exactly or Kentucky tuck in
Speaker 1: the tuck in because it's really tuck in.
Speaker 2: Okay, I couldn't figure right, all right?
Speaker 1: Last one, this is a container for soup, a metal
Speaker 1: container for soup, plus what a cheeky, impertinent person might have.
Speaker 3: Well, I would say a can would be the container
Speaker 3: for soup.
Speaker 2: But a cheeker oh sas good.
Speaker 3: So we're not just dropping the s because that could
Speaker 3: also just have been cans cans plural. And then I
Speaker 3: don't know whether you all had to swear on the Puzzler,
Speaker 3: but yes, can sass canton.
Speaker 1: Can sass well in honor of you. We're trying to
Speaker 1: be sort of more of a family ship, right. We
Speaker 1: didn't go with the cans ass well. You did fantastic.
Speaker 1: You just ran right through those Where can people find
Speaker 1: the middle or.
Speaker 3: Wherever they listened to their podcasts is where I would
Speaker 3: say they can find the middle. And we come out
Speaker 3: basically every Friday morning. It's about an hour long show
Speaker 3: and it's got two panel guests every week on a
Speaker 3: different topic, everything from immigration to inflation to China. A
Speaker 3: lot of interesting stuff and always really interesting callers from
Speaker 3: around the country.
Speaker 1: I highly recommend it very good. And before we wrap up,
Speaker 1: as always for all the puzzlers at home, here is
Speaker 1: an extra credit. Puzzle. Cyclops has one plus I should
Speaker 1: have known that. Plus a gardening tool. Cyclops has one.
Speaker 1: I should have known that gardening tool. You will get
Speaker 1: the answer on the next episode of The Puzzler, and
Speaker 1: in the meantime, please subscribe, tell your friends even rate it.
Speaker 1: It's just a click five stars is the easiest one
Speaker 1: to click. I believe and we'll meet you here tomorrow
Speaker 1: for more puzzling puzzles will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4: Hello puzzlers. Greg Pliska here from the Puzzle Lab with
Speaker 4: the extra credit answer from our previous episode. We played
Speaker 4: with David and Lisa Spira and pg Law from the
Speaker 4: repod podcast, and AJ gave everybody puzzles about other kinds
Speaker 4: of rooms that are not escape rooms. The extra credit
Speaker 4: was this is the room where you practice your shouts
Speaker 4: for dog sledding and the answer, of course is mushroom,
Speaker 4: So mush mush everybody. Come on back to the Puzzler
Speaker 4: Podcast tomorrow and we'll have more fun puzzles for you.
Speaker 4: Thanks for playing along.