Speaker 1: Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, home of your
Speaker 1: daily puzzle Nash. I am your host, A J. Jacobs,
Speaker 1: and I'm here with Chief puzzle Officer Greg Puliska.
Speaker 2: Hello Greg, Hello AJ. Thanks for dragging me out of
Speaker 2: the puzzle lab today.
Speaker 1: My pleasure. Greg. Have you ever run across naysayers who
Speaker 1: tell you that puzzles are a waste of time?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I'm around puzzle people all the time,
Speaker 2: so I don't really, But occasionally, yeah, I'll find some
Speaker 2: grumpy crank who thinks that puzzles are a waste of time.
Speaker 1: And how do you respond?
Speaker 2: I say, stop being such a grumpy crank.
Speaker 1: Perfect answer. I have another answer, which you're welcome to use.
Speaker 1: My answer is democracy was saved by a puzzle, at
Speaker 1: least a little. It had something to do with it.
Speaker 1: And I'm referring to if you don't know, a historic
Speaker 1: crossword puzzle published on January thirteenth, nineteen forty two, in
Speaker 1: the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph. And this was during
Speaker 1: World War Two. It was no ordinary puzzle. It was
Speaker 1: instead a top secret recruiting tool because the British military
Speaker 1: was looking to find people geniuses who could help break
Speaker 1: the Nazis' secret code, and they used the crossword puzzle
Speaker 1: as a recruitment tool. It's one of the most fascinating
Speaker 1: stories I ran across while researching my book. If you
Speaker 1: solved the crossword in less than twelve minutes, you were
Speaker 1: supposed to contact someone, and that person turned out to
Speaker 1: be a representative of the famous Bletchley Park code breaking
Speaker 1: operation outside London, where Alan Turing helped break the Nazi
Speaker 1: Enigma code as seen in the Imitation Game. Have you
Speaker 1: seen that?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's a great movie.
Speaker 1: Love So thank you to this puzzle, and I thought
Speaker 1: it might be fun to see if you, Greg could
Speaker 1: have saved the world. Could you have been a codebreaker
Speaker 1: against the Nazis. I couldn't have, by the way. I
Speaker 1: tried to solve this and it took me way longer
Speaker 1: than twelve minutes. But I'm I'm counting on you too.
Speaker 2: I'm here. If you're not going to save democracy, I'm
Speaker 2: here to do it.
Speaker 1: Thank God. All right, So I'm going to give you
Speaker 1: three clues from this famous crossword and see if you
Speaker 1: can do. Now, remember these are this is in London,
Speaker 1: so it's going to be a little tricky. They love
Speaker 1: their wordplay.
Speaker 2: Yep, and it's nineteen forty two, so it's even a
Speaker 2: tricky here before either of us was born, to be sure.
Speaker 1: Go well, thank you. That's nice of you to say,
Speaker 1: all right, first of the three, you're ready. This was
Speaker 1: seventeen across in the The clue is is this town
Speaker 1: ready for a flood?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 1: Is this town ready for a flood? And the solution
Speaker 1: is six letters. I'll walk you through it a little
Speaker 1: if you want.
Speaker 2: Is it is it? It's not a town in the UK,
Speaker 2: it's a town, or maybe it is, but we know
Speaker 2: it is a town in New Jersey, don't we Oh.
Speaker 1: My god, you're too fast. Give the people a chance
Speaker 1: to catch up.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm just I haven't told anybody anything.
Speaker 1: Well, yes, he's got it, just so you know. It's
Speaker 1: a town in New Jersey. And the way I solved
Speaker 1: it eventually was what do you think of when you
Speaker 1: think of a flood? What did Noah use? And did
Speaker 1: he use an old one of these boats or a.
Speaker 2: New new one, a new.
Speaker 1: New art Newark. So there you go, that's the answer.
Speaker 1: The lovely Newark in the home state of my wife,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. All right, you're ready for number two?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, we're halfway or I don't know how many were doing,
Speaker 2: but we're on our way to saving democracy.
Speaker 1: All right, This is twenty five down. The clue is
Speaker 1: this symbol of the zodiac has no connection with the fishes.
Speaker 1: So it's six letters. The symbol of the zodiac has
Speaker 1: no connection with the fishes. So immediately you can discard
Speaker 1: your first thought.
Speaker 2: Right, it's not Pisces.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be Pisces, but it is some
Speaker 1: Have you gotten it yet?
Speaker 2: Or I'm just running through the zodiac symbols. It doesn't
Speaker 2: seem like it's Gemini.
Speaker 1: Now I didn't say signs, I said.
Speaker 2: Symbols, symbol of the zodiac.
Speaker 1: So there is like, yeah, the fish for piscy.
Speaker 2: Oh oh, I get it, because it could have connection
Speaker 2: with the fishes if you use the word in a
Speaker 2: slightly different way exactly, which is which is scales libra scales?
Speaker 2: That's nice, So there you go.
Speaker 1: The answer is scales because it's a symbol of libra
Speaker 1: on the zodiac. Okay, last one, but this one I
Speaker 1: think actually is the trickiest. Are you ready?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: All right? The clue is the direct root preferred by roundheads.
Speaker 1: So that's one word. Capital are round heads And the
Speaker 1: answer is a two word phrase five letters followed by
Speaker 1: three letters. Now this is this is actually a classic
Speaker 1: cryptic clue because it's got two parts. It's got the
Speaker 1: synonym direct root and then the second part involves roundheads.
Speaker 2: Do I have to remember who the roundheads were historically?
Speaker 1: Well? I sure didn't, but I Wikipedia did, so I.
Speaker 2: Can something to do with Cromwell or something might Anglophile
Speaker 2: friends are going to be ashamed of me.
Speaker 1: You are absolutely right. They were the supporters of Oliver
Speaker 1: Cromwell against the king in the English Civil War. And
Speaker 1: what is notable about them is that the defenders of
Speaker 1: the monarchy had long flowing hair, as men should, but
Speaker 1: the roundheads have very closely cropped shortcuts. Shortcuts, that's the answer.
Speaker 1: Nice shortcuts is also a direct route, but it also
Speaker 1: refers to the roundhead's hair style of choice. So there
Speaker 1: you go. I think you would have.
Speaker 2: I love that. I think democracy is safe right now.
Speaker 1: AJ Thank god we have people like you now.
Speaker 2: I just do you know that m I six, which
Speaker 2: I think is currently known as the GHQ in the UK,
Speaker 2: does a puzzle challenge every Christmas.
Speaker 1: You know I didn't know this.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, I've I've looked at the puzzle. I
Speaker 2: always forget that it's happening, and then I come to
Speaker 2: it too many, you know, many months later. But it's
Speaker 2: the GHQ Christmas Challenge. They have it online. And what
Speaker 2: I love is that you go to their website and
Speaker 2: you can read their mission about you know, fighting terrorism
Speaker 2: and you know, keeping the cyber force, keeping the UK safe.
Speaker 2: But on one of the pages it's the GHQ Christmas Challenge.
Speaker 2: It's kind of a joyful little page in the midst
Speaker 2: of all the work they're doing. Anyway. Well, look, it's.
Speaker 1: Not just brim though America. This is at least a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. I went on the CIA website
Speaker 1: and they had a kids corner. They had like a
Speaker 1: little page of fun puzzles for kids. So, you know,
Speaker 1: the kids who want to become, you know, little mini spies,
Speaker 1: they are right there, all right. So before we wrap up,
Speaker 1: as always for you puzzlers at home, we have an
Speaker 1: extra credit puzzle and this is a clue from another
Speaker 1: crossword puzzle, and that's newspaper the Telegram. It's from a
Speaker 1: few days later, but same idea. The clue is did
Speaker 1: a nose get out of order? This may be the cause.
Speaker 1: So I'll read it again, did a nose get out
Speaker 1: of order? This may be the cause. The answer is
Speaker 1: eight letters. And remember this is the type of clue
Speaker 1: where out of order might mean there might be an
Speaker 1: anagram in there somewhere. Puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Puzzler podcast. I will meet you here tomorrow
Speaker 1: for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2: Hey puzzlers, Greg Kliska here with the extra credit answer
Speaker 2: from our previous episode. We played far Sad with the
Speaker 2: gain farsad because her last name is made up of
Speaker 2: two three letter words far and sad. Your extra credit
Speaker 2: clue was an actor the main dish at many a
Speaker 2: Christmas dinner plus a word before repute, equipped or mannered,
Speaker 2: and that of course is the actor Mark hamil Ham
Speaker 2: plus ill Mark Hamill. May the Force be with you
Speaker 2: and may you listen to the Puzzler. Thanks for playing
Speaker 2: along with the team Here at the Puzzler with AJ Jacobs.
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer. Our executive producers
Speaker 2: are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhouse of New House Ideas
Speaker 2: and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced
Speaker 2: by Jody Abragan and Brittany Brown of Roulette Productions, with
Speaker 2: production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our associate producer is
Speaker 2: Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is a co
Speaker 2: production with New House Ideas and is distributed by I
Speaker 2: Shop Castre No No No Sorry, I meant to rearrange
Speaker 2: the Letters distributed by iHeartPodcasts. If you want to know
Speaker 2: more about puzzling puzzles, please check out the book The
Speaker 2: Puzzler by AJ Jacobs, a history of puzzles that The
Speaker 2: New York Times called fun and funny. It features an
Speaker 2: original puzzle hunt by yours Truly, and is available wherever
Speaker 2: you get your books and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs,
Speaker 2: go visit the Puzzler dot com. See you there,