transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:01] Hello, Puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. I'm going to give you five pairs of countries, and each of these pairs share an interesting characteristic. It's the same characteristic, in fact, and your challenge is to try to figure out what is that thing that links these pairs of countries. Here you go. Number one, United States and China. Number two, Romania and Ghana. Number three, the UK and Uganda. Number four, Tunisia and Suriname. Number five, Austria and the UAE, United Arab Emirates. So those pairs again are US and China, Romania and Ghana, UK and Uganda, Tunisia, Suriname, Austria, UAE. Now all of them are linked by the same connection. Hint, it is not wordplay. And another little fact, that you should probably know is that Greg has an advantage because geography is a particular area of interest for him.
Speaker 2:
[01:08] Sure. Set me up that way. Set me up to fail. I like it.
Speaker 1:
[01:11] Well, you have many areas of interest, but geography is a big area of interest of yours. The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break. Hello, folks, welcome back to the Hello Puzzlers podcast, The Watermelon Breeze at your puzzle Jumper Juice franchise. I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I am here, of course, with Chief Puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska. Greg, before the break, we asked, what do these pairs of countries share in common? Same characteristic, and I gave five pairs of countries, the US and China, Romania and Ghana, UK and Uganda, Tunisia and Suriname, Austria and the UAA. What do you think?
Speaker 2:
[01:59] Well, the first pair, they're both run by tyrannical despots who ignore the rights of their people.
Speaker 1:
[02:03] Is that it? A little editorializing. I like it.
Speaker 2:
[02:06] Yeah, no, that's not what you meant. Would another pair be something like San Marino and Liechtenstein, maybe?
Speaker 1:
[02:15] That is sounding very plausible.
Speaker 2:
[02:17] And Dora in San Marino, maybe?
Speaker 1:
[02:19] Yeah, Vatican.
Speaker 2:
[02:20] Vatican City and Monaco?
Speaker 1:
[02:23] Not Vatican City and Russia. That would not fall into place.
Speaker 2:
[02:28] Definitely not. Not Canada and Togo. I believe each pair, the countries are similar in area.
Speaker 1:
[02:39] That is correct. That is correct. Very similar land area square mileage. Less than one percent difference depending on how you measure it. So US and China both have about 3.7 million square miles. It's a little iffy depending on whether you do include water like Great Lakes or not. The real champions are Romania and Ghana. I mean, superstars, they are like twins.
Speaker 2:
[03:05] Exactly the same. It's practically the same country.
Speaker 1:
[03:09] So similar. 0.06 percent difference. One is 92 million 46 miles. One is 92 million 98 miles. Like that is crazy. Then we got Suriname and Tunisia, 63,000 miles each, etc. So I thought that was interesting.
Speaker 2:
[03:27] Yeah, I also enjoy puzzles, things, geography, things where they're looking for things of the same shape to, you know, countries that-
Speaker 1:
[03:35] Like what?
Speaker 2:
[03:36] Well, I knew you were going to ask me that. I don't have a quick one up. But some of these are kind of similarly shaped. Actually, what's equally, what I particularly find fun is where you have to identify the country from the outline.
Speaker 1:
[03:47] Oh, that's a good game.
Speaker 2:
[03:48] Which is a good, you know-
Speaker 1:
[03:49] Hard to do on a podcast.
Speaker 2:
[03:51] Hard to do on a podcast.
Speaker 1:
[03:52] We could describe it. And then it goes a little to the left.
Speaker 2:
[03:55] Right. It's a little squiggly on one side and then kind of squiggly on the other side and then squiggly again going up the third part.
Speaker 1:
[04:04] That would be a challenge for us mostly. All right. Well, speaking of interesting things, that's my new all-purpose segue.
Speaker 2:
[04:12] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[04:13] Like, why not? Because everything on The Puzzler, I believe, is interesting. Yeah. Friday is particularly interesting because we cover listener mail and breaking puzzle news. We'll get to some very exciting listener mail in the second segment from Andrea. But in the first segment, we've got Greg with some lukewarm puzzle news.
Speaker 2:
[04:37] Lukewarm puzzle news. This is not hot off the presses.
Speaker 1:
[04:41] But hot, the topic is hot. The topic is hot if not the timing.
Speaker 2:
[04:45] Always, always. It's relatively recent. A lot of folks have been aware of this, but you might not have noticed. They got some more puzzle news from The New York Times, because we talked a few weeks ago about the new midi crossword, the medium-sized crossword. This week, I have some news about the beloved game, Wirtle.
Speaker 1:
[05:02] Wirtle. Okay.
Speaker 2:
[05:04] Are you still playing Wirtle?
Speaker 1:
[05:06] I play a little because my son Jasper plays and he challenges me. He got in two, he recently got two. First guess white, second guess sheep, and his sheep was correct. It was a little phrase.
Speaker 2:
[05:20] You got thematic.
Speaker 1:
[05:21] I feel like you can write a short story on Wirtle. That would be.
Speaker 2:
[05:25] That's like, yes, that'd be great. You can think your five guesses and then create a story using those five words in order. That sounds like a fun game. Well, I don't know if you're aware, but the list of possible five-letter Wirtle answers is relatively small. There are, I believe, about 2,315 acceptable possible answers, according to the times.
Speaker 1:
[05:47] Got it. Because some five-letter words are just so obscure, they don't want to put it in.
Speaker 2:
[05:52] Yeah. I think they've left out plurals and past tense words. I forget, but they allow more. There are about 13,000 legitimate guesses, right? But the actual possible answers were answer words about 2,300.
Speaker 1:
[06:06] Interesting.
Speaker 2:
[06:07] So inevitably, this was going to happen. They were going to run out of new answer words.
Speaker 1:
[06:13] Oh my God. This is a crisis.
Speaker 2:
[06:16] It's not. On Groundhog Day this year, just a few months ago, they started again.
Speaker 1:
[06:22] That was clever. If you're going to have to do it like Groundhog's Day from the movie, yeah, it's a good idea.
Speaker 2:
[06:29] They went back to the very first solution ever used in Wordle to mark a beginning of the new era for the game when words will now possibly be repeats of previous Wordle answers. Can you guess what the very first one was?
Speaker 1:
[06:41] Huh, the very first one. That's a good guess.
Speaker 2:
[06:44] I predict you will get close, but no.
Speaker 1:
[06:48] Cigar was the first one.
Speaker 2:
[06:50] Yes, very good.
Speaker 1:
[06:51] Cigar was the very first one. How did I come up with that?
Speaker 2:
[06:53] I don't know. So we're cycling back around. Those of you who are completists, who have played all 2,315, you can start reusing your guesses.
Speaker 1:
[07:03] Interesting. All right. So do you think that that's a crisis? You don't think it's a crisis because you think 2,000 is enough that it's still fun?
Speaker 2:
[07:12] Well, the truth is every day, you don't know what the possibility is going to be. It's not like you have actually memorized all the ones that have been used.
Speaker 1:
[07:21] That's speak for yourself.
Speaker 2:
[07:23] Yeah, I know. I am. Nor do you know all the ones that are possible. If there are 13,000 possible guesses, you don't know what.
Speaker 1:
[07:30] All right.
Speaker 2:
[07:31] I think it's perfectly fine.
Speaker 1:
[07:33] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[07:33] I mean, it's like the story of, I think it was Peter Gordon back in the day, challenged one of the great crossword solvers on a puzzle that Peter himself wrote.
Speaker 1:
[07:43] Right.
Speaker 2:
[07:44] Peter has become a very fast solver. But early on, he used to tell the story about being slower on a puzzle he created, because you don't always remember what you created, right?
Speaker 1:
[07:54] That is true. Yeah. I mean, we could go back and I could be stumped by a lot of the puzzles that we created. I'm sure.
Speaker 2:
[08:00] We just redo them.
Speaker 1:
[08:02] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[08:02] Well, I decided since cigar was the word, we should play a little categories game using the letters in the word cigar.
Speaker 1:
[08:08] Fair enough.
Speaker 2:
[08:10] So we're going to bring Puzzler Andrea Schoenberg on to play along.
Speaker 3:
[08:15] All right.
Speaker 2:
[08:16] We'll do this the way we usually do. One of you gets to go first, and then you give one answer in the category using C, I, G, A, or R, and you just go back and forth.
Speaker 1:
[08:25] Okay. Got it. And the category, you're going to give us the category, and we have to come up with two things that fulfill that, are members of that category.
Speaker 2:
[08:34] No, I'm going to say, we're going to do one thing for each letter. So you'll, if Andrea takes the C, then you have the I, G, A, R, R.
Speaker 1:
[08:40] Oh, I see. Okay.
Speaker 2:
[08:41] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[08:41] I forgot. I know we played it a hundred times, but proving once again, the wordal is okay.
Speaker 3:
[08:47] Exactly.
Speaker 2:
[08:47] You could have the same word every day. You wouldn't remember.
Speaker 3:
[08:50] All right.
Speaker 2:
[08:50] Your first category, let's make it an easy one. States, US. States.
Speaker 1:
[08:55] Okay. Who goes first?
Speaker 2:
[08:57] Andrea goes first.
Speaker 3:
[08:58] Okay. I'll take Colorado.
Speaker 2:
[09:01] Very good. AJ.
Speaker 1:
[09:02] Indiana.
Speaker 2:
[09:04] All right.
Speaker 3:
[09:04] Good.
Speaker 2:
[09:04] Andrea.
Speaker 3:
[09:05] Georgia.
Speaker 2:
[09:06] The only G is Georgia. Yes.
Speaker 1:
[09:08] And Alabama.
Speaker 2:
[09:10] Alabama.
Speaker 1:
[09:11] A lot of these, right?
Speaker 3:
[09:12] Yeah. Rhode Island.
Speaker 2:
[09:14] Rhode Island. That was easy. You blew through those. There's also only one R. So you don't have to do these in order C-I-G-A-R. You can pick off the easy letters first if you want.
Speaker 1:
[09:24] All right. I like doing them in order. It gives me a sense of order. Well, fine.
Speaker 2:
[09:31] But the I is going to be challenging in almost every category except states. All right. Here you go, AJ. You go first.
Speaker 1:
[09:37] Good.
Speaker 2:
[09:38] Best picture winners. Oscar best picture winners.
Speaker 1:
[09:41] Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:
[09:42] Not counting 2026 because we are.
Speaker 1:
[09:46] We are recording this before.
Speaker 2:
[09:47] I've been recording it before the Oscars are given out.
Speaker 1:
[09:49] What if I predict it correctly? Then how about Chariots of Fire?
Speaker 2:
[09:57] 1981, one of, looks like seven different C movies that have won the Oscar. Most recently, Coda in 2021.
Speaker 1:
[10:05] All right. Now I'm trying the thing. I'm so tempted to call up a list so that I can choose.
Speaker 2:
[10:11] Andrea gets to go next.
Speaker 3:
[10:12] The only one that's coming immediately to mind, because it's so recent, is A for Anorah.
Speaker 2:
[10:20] Anorah, very good. Yes, exactly. A, very recently, Anorah.
Speaker 1:
[10:24] All right. The Grand Hotel. The Grand Hotel.
Speaker 2:
[10:27] That's actually called just Grand Hotel.
Speaker 1:
[10:29] Oh, even better.
Speaker 2:
[10:30] Or the leading article, but there you go.
Speaker 1:
[10:32] I got bonus points.
Speaker 2:
[10:34] The two godfathers and Gandhi.
Speaker 1:
[10:36] Yeah, but everyone knows Grand Hotel. Godfather is an obscure one.
Speaker 2:
[10:40] Nobody started out.
Speaker 1:
[10:41] Grand Hotel is what really pops.
Speaker 2:
[10:44] 1931-32, Oscar winner, Grand Hotel.
Speaker 1:
[10:48] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[10:49] Okay, Andrea, we have R and I.
Speaker 1:
[10:51] R and I.
Speaker 3:
[10:53] I'll tell you what, I think I'm going to need some years to help me out here.
Speaker 2:
[10:57] Okay, the most recent R movie is 1988.
Speaker 3:
[11:02] Oh, did Rocky win?
Speaker 2:
[11:04] Rocky did win in 1976.
Speaker 3:
[11:06] Amazing. Well, a little less recent, but we did it.
Speaker 2:
[11:10] Yep, 1988 was Rain Man and 1940 was the, I believe the only Hitchcock best picture winner, Rebecca.
Speaker 3:
[11:17] Oh, right.
Speaker 2:
[11:19] All right, AJ.
Speaker 1:
[11:19] Oh, man.
Speaker 2:
[11:20] Two I's.
Speaker 1:
[11:21] All right, well, my strategy here is I'm trying to think of words to start with I, like I, I married an ax murderer, very funny, but did not win. It's a Wonderful Life, a classic, but I doubt it won.
Speaker 2:
[11:33] Did not win.
Speaker 1:
[11:34] There's also I, like I Claudius, I feel there's maybe one of those.
Speaker 2:
[11:39] That's a TV show, I believe that did not win. So one of these is 1934, one is 1967.
Speaker 3:
[11:48] Oh, I thought I got one.
Speaker 1:
[11:51] Well, let her have it, let her have it. She got it fair and square.
Speaker 3:
[11:54] Yeah, because I feel like I haven't seen that many classic movies. I know, I'm sorry, but I have seen this particular movie and it's wonderful, and I recommend it to everybody. It totally holds up, It Happened One Night.
Speaker 2:
[12:07] Very good. Yes, It Happened One Night. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, right?
Speaker 1:
[12:12] Yeah, which is a romantic comedy, right?
Speaker 3:
[12:15] Yeah, it's a screwball.
Speaker 1:
[12:16] Which you don't get a lot of screwball comedy winners. I think that would be it. No, no.
Speaker 3:
[12:22] Let's have some respect on the genre.
Speaker 2:
[12:25] Can you come up with the other one? 1967, Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger in the heart of the civil rights movement. So it's about race. It's in the south. Sidney Poitier is a detective.
Speaker 3:
[12:40] Nope, I am not coming up with it.
Speaker 2:
[12:43] In something?
Speaker 1:
[12:45] In the heat of the night.
Speaker 2:
[12:46] In the heat of the night.
Speaker 1:
[12:47] There you go.
Speaker 2:
[12:48] Very good.
Speaker 1:
[12:50] All right.
Speaker 2:
[12:50] Let's switch over to your favorite category, sports teams.
Speaker 3:
[12:56] I believe I go first.
Speaker 1:
[12:56] Like any sports?
Speaker 2:
[12:58] Any of the big four or big five US sports teams.
Speaker 1:
[13:03] You better include the WNBA. Baseball, football. Don't be sexist.
Speaker 2:
[13:06] I include both basketball and men's basketball.
Speaker 1:
[13:09] All right. Great. The Women's Hockey League, I'm going to throw in there. Why not?
Speaker 2:
[13:13] Yes, you can. Why not?
Speaker 1:
[13:15] I don't know any of them.
Speaker 2:
[13:16] No.
Speaker 1:
[13:16] I should.
Speaker 2:
[13:18] Their first season, they just had the names of the cities. So Professional Women's Hockey League.
Speaker 3:
[13:23] Well, I'm going to take my first go with C, Cubs.
Speaker 2:
[13:27] Yes. Lots of C's. Lots of C's available. Cubs certainly counts. The Ottawa Charge would be the Women's Hockey League team.
Speaker 1:
[13:36] Very good. I'll go with the A's. I believe the A's start with an A.
Speaker 2:
[13:42] The A's. Currently, they are known as the Athletics or the A's because they have no city. They are between Oakland and Las Vegas. Currently playing in Sacramento, so they're just the Athletics.
Speaker 1:
[13:54] There you go.
Speaker 2:
[13:55] That counts. Yes.
Speaker 1:
[13:56] Definitely. Are you kidding? It counts the most.
Speaker 2:
[13:59] All right, Andrea. IG and R are still on the board.
Speaker 3:
[14:02] Can I go with Green Bay Packers?
Speaker 2:
[14:04] No, you can't. That's all out? Team name, not the city name.
Speaker 3:
[14:08] That's all out?
Speaker 2:
[14:09] Okay. The Vancouver Professional Women's Hockey Team is a G. That's not going to help you.
Speaker 3:
[14:14] I'm happy for them.
Speaker 2:
[14:15] At all. The Las Vegas Hockey Team.
Speaker 3:
[14:20] Are they the Las Vegas Raiders?
Speaker 2:
[14:24] No, that's the football team. But you can have that for the R. The Las Vegas Raiders count for the R.
Speaker 3:
[14:30] I'll take it.
Speaker 1:
[14:31] What about the Grizzlies?
Speaker 2:
[14:33] The Grizzlies. Yep, absolutely. Vancouver Grizzlies, also the New York Giants.
Speaker 1:
[14:38] Sure.
Speaker 2:
[14:38] Could have been used. The Vegas Golden Knights. The Guardians, actually, you should have grabbed credit for the Guardians.
Speaker 1:
[14:47] So you're left with the I. And it's an ice hockey team for I. And it is the?
Speaker 2:
[14:53] And it is local.
Speaker 1:
[14:55] Oh, the Islanders. The Islanders. The Islanders, there you go.
Speaker 2:
[14:58] Very good.
Speaker 3:
[14:59] Nice, nice, nice.
Speaker 2:
[15:00] All right, let's wrap up with flowers.
Speaker 1:
[15:05] I like the way you say it. It's so floral.
Speaker 2:
[15:07] Very broad category, very broad category. But, you know, and I've got some obscure ones listed here, but you're probably not going to mention them. You're going to go with the more common.
Speaker 1:
[15:16] All right, well, who goes first? All right, rhododendron.
Speaker 2:
[15:20] Rhododendron is good. Also, rose and rose of Sharon.
Speaker 1:
[15:24] Yeah, but most people think rhododendron over rose. That's the one that comes to mind.
Speaker 2:
[15:29] Really? You have data about this?
Speaker 1:
[15:33] I like to go-
Speaker 2:
[15:33] Nobody thinks of roses when they think of flowers. They immediately think of rhododendron.
Speaker 1:
[15:37] Exactly.
Speaker 3:
[15:40] Carnation.
Speaker 2:
[15:41] Carnation. Yeah, very good, very good. There's a whole host of C's there, including the calla lily and the cowslip and the crocus, chrysanthemum.
Speaker 1:
[15:50] I'll take aster, which is-
Speaker 2:
[15:52] Aster, very nice.
Speaker 1:
[15:53] That appears a lot in Crossword Puzzles.
Speaker 2:
[15:55] A lot in Crossword Puzzles.
Speaker 1:
[15:56] Right?
Speaker 2:
[15:57] Yep, you also have an amaryllis and anemone.
Speaker 3:
[16:01] Iris.
Speaker 2:
[16:02] Iris, very good. Just about the only I right there.
Speaker 1:
[16:05] Yeah, I am very glad you took the I because I have a G, which is gardenia.
Speaker 2:
[16:11] Gardenia, very good.
Speaker 1:
[16:12] But I did not have an I.
Speaker 3:
[16:14] Yeah, that worked out perfectly.
Speaker 2:
[16:15] Geraniums and gladiolus and goldenrod. Well done. You guys got them all.
Speaker 1:
[16:20] Look at that. We get a cigar. We get a cigar as a prize, I guess.
Speaker 2:
[16:24] We used to play this when I was a kid. The family would do it. You just come up with a five-letter word, and then you take turns giving the categories.
Speaker 1:
[16:33] There you go.
Speaker 2:
[16:34] So my dad would pick sports teams and my mom would pick herbs and spices or whatever, and we'd all pick a category, and then you give yourself some time to come up with something for every category.
Speaker 1:
[16:45] Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Look at that. So there you go. You can play yourself. Speaking of that, we have listeners. We have listener mail coming up, so don't go away. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[16:56] I'm excited.
Speaker 1:
[16:57] We'll be right back with that.
Speaker 4:
[17:02] Hi, I'm Willip Haskin, the host of Decoder Ring, Slate's podcast about cracking cultural mysteries. On Decoder Ring, we dive down rabbit holes and obsessively explore questions hiding in plain sight. Like why is protein in everything these days? Are British teeth really as bad as Americans like to think they are? Why in the late 1990s, did people suddenly become re-obsessed with swing music? All that and more on Decoder Ring. Listen to new episodes every two weeks where you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1:
[17:35] Hello Puzzlers. Welcome back to the Hello Puzzlers podcast. We are here on a Friday. Greg just gave us an excellent puzzle and some breaking news, but we also do listener letters on Friday and we've got a very special letter. Well, I won't ruin it, but I'm gonna turn it over to Andrea, who is gonna take us through.
Speaker 3:
[17:58] Right, yeah, it is a very special letter today because it is from a listener who happens to be my father.
Speaker 1:
[18:06] What?
Speaker 3:
[18:07] So thank you, Dad, for the puzzle. This comes from listener Eric Schoenberg.
Speaker 2:
[18:11] I hope he's a VIP. Is he a VIP? Has he signed up for the Patreon?
Speaker 1:
[18:15] Great point. If not, then...
Speaker 2:
[18:17] I'm just saying.
Speaker 1:
[18:18] I think we should not do this puzzle until he... Let's wait until he signs up.
Speaker 2:
[18:23] No, we appreciate his support for us and for particularly for his daughter.
Speaker 1:
[18:28] Absolutely.
Speaker 3:
[18:29] Yes. He calls this puzzle, Uncontradictory Contronyms.
Speaker 2:
[18:34] Sure he does.
Speaker 1:
[18:35] Wow. Now he is very smart. I happen to know him.
Speaker 2:
[18:38] Well, we know where Andrea gets it. I'm just saying.
Speaker 1:
[18:41] Well, I think he introduced Andrea to the love of puzzling, I believe that.
Speaker 3:
[18:45] That's true. Actually, it is. It's very true. We used to do the crossword together. When I was a small child, we would do the Sunday and New York Times together, and he would help me with all the clues because obviously as a 10-year-old, I cannot, it's not very good at it.
Speaker 1:
[19:02] Not even you.
Speaker 2:
[19:03] I may have told this story before. I had the flip with my father. I used to make him crossword puzzles. The problem was I didn't understand anything about the rules of crossword puzzle construction or really the parameters of language. So I would build a grid that was all kinds of asymmetrical and had weird unchecked letters. If I needed a word, I would just search through the dictionary, the honor bridge dictionary to find it. I didn't know that it was an uncommon word. I would just find a word and put it in there with the definition.
Speaker 1:
[19:36] Sure.
Speaker 2:
[19:37] My poor father had to suffer through some very ridiculous crossword puzzles.
Speaker 1:
[19:41] Well, he learned. He learned some interesting vocabulary.
Speaker 2:
[19:45] Exactly.
Speaker 1:
[19:46] Tell us more about Eric's puzzle.
Speaker 3:
[19:49] Contradims are words with two opposite meanings. The phrase to dust can mean both to make clean or to make dirty.
Speaker 1:
[19:58] You put dust on or you dust a donut or you dust a shelf.
Speaker 3:
[20:04] Exactly. But this puzzle is about seemingly opposite words or phrases that have the same meaning. So they just look like they should have opposite meanings, but they actually mean the same thing.
Speaker 1:
[20:16] Fake contronyms.
Speaker 3:
[20:18] Fake contronyms.
Speaker 1:
[20:19] Interesting.
Speaker 3:
[20:19] Or the opposite contronyms. As my dad calls them, uncontradictory contronyms.
Speaker 1:
[20:25] Okay, very good.
Speaker 3:
[20:26] An example of this would be flammable and inflammable.
Speaker 1:
[20:28] Oh, that's a classic.
Speaker 3:
[20:30] Yeah, two words that look like they should have the opposite meaning but actually both mean a substance that burns.
Speaker 1:
[20:36] Right. Luckily, it's not a very high stakes one because if you see the label inflammable, then I'm joking. It's shit like it's crazy that that word means both things when it could let burn down your house.
Speaker 3:
[20:54] Yeah, not great. It's not great. The English language.
Speaker 1:
[20:57] It's got issues. All right.
Speaker 3:
[20:59] So I'm going to test you, Greg and AJ is here to help. Although I believe he has seen this. Quickly.
Speaker 1:
[21:08] I teaked, but I don't remember everything.
Speaker 2:
[21:10] We appreciate your honesty. Appreciate your honesty.
Speaker 3:
[21:13] All right. So what apparently opposite words both mean, this is a place that you can live. A place you can live.
Speaker 1:
[21:22] An adjective.
Speaker 2:
[21:23] Residents or a boat.
Speaker 3:
[21:24] So like a place where an animal or an organism is known to live is called?
Speaker 2:
[21:32] A den, a lair, a womb, a cave, a hutch, a warren, a warren.
Speaker 1:
[21:38] Oh, look at that. Nice.
Speaker 2:
[21:39] A...
Speaker 1:
[21:41] What about that you have hamsters or gerbils when you were a kid and have elaborate tunnels for them?
Speaker 2:
[21:49] Hutch, tunnel maze, gerbil. Let me ask you a question. Is the thing that makes these look like opposites a prefix?
Speaker 3:
[21:58] Yes.
Speaker 2:
[21:59] And what prefix is it? I N. So we're looking for an in word and...
Speaker 1:
[22:05] I mean, another meaning of this is a vice or something bad or good that you can't give up.
Speaker 2:
[22:13] Habit, habitat?
Speaker 1:
[22:15] Yes.
Speaker 3:
[22:16] Just a habit.
Speaker 2:
[22:17] A habit or inhabit.
Speaker 3:
[22:20] Yes, exactly. Or habitable and inhabitable.
Speaker 2:
[22:23] Oh, got it. Habitable and inhabitable. But doesn't the inhabitable mean it's not a place you can live?
Speaker 3:
[22:31] It can mean that, but it can also mean that it is a place where you inhabit.
Speaker 1:
[22:35] It is a contronym itself. Inhabitable is a contronym itself.
Speaker 2:
[22:40] Both things.
Speaker 1:
[22:41] Both things. Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[22:42] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[22:42] This Eric is very tricky.
Speaker 3:
[22:43] Because this language is crazy.
Speaker 1:
[22:45] It's crazy. Yeah. He's even tougher than Andrea coming up with puzzles. He's a tough one. All right. What else you got?
Speaker 2:
[22:52] So Jimmy Carter could have had a thing called Inhabitat for Inhumanity.
Speaker 1:
[22:57] Exactly. Great idea.
Speaker 3:
[23:00] All right. This one is also tricky, but we'll just try it. What apparently opposite words both mean unemotional. So it's like the opposite of active. The opposite of being active. You're passive.
Speaker 2:
[23:15] No, passive and impassive.
Speaker 3:
[23:17] Exactly.
Speaker 2:
[23:19] I love that. I love that one.
Speaker 3:
[23:20] Yeah. My dad also came up with a bunch of phrases that don't just negate the word. They actually use the opposite word to convey the same meaning.
Speaker 2:
[23:30] Okay.
Speaker 3:
[23:32] So for example, what seemingly opposite words both mean someone who helps someone else. This is what you would call, like a babysitter can be called this.
Speaker 1:
[23:49] I forget.
Speaker 2:
[23:49] A day laborer, no. A granny, a household helper, a aid?
Speaker 1:
[23:53] A household helper, a aid?
Speaker 3:
[23:56] No, someone who offers assistance.
Speaker 2:
[24:00] Assistance, caregiver?
Speaker 3:
[24:02] Yes.
Speaker 1:
[24:02] Oh, nice.
Speaker 3:
[24:03] Caregiver, and then the opposite of the giver.
Speaker 2:
[24:05] Caretaker.
Speaker 3:
[24:06] A caretaker.
Speaker 2:
[24:07] That's so good.
Speaker 1:
[24:09] That is interesting. Like you are taking care.
Speaker 2:
[24:13] Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[24:13] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[24:14] Take, take, yeah.
Speaker 2:
[24:15] Oh, Eric, that's a good one. That's my favorite one so far.
Speaker 3:
[24:17] What phrases use opposite words to mean, that's unimportant to me? This is kind of your classic. English has evolved to...
Speaker 2:
[24:27] Right. I could care less. I couldn't care less.
Speaker 3:
[24:30] Exactly. Exactly. Right. Good one. What phrases use opposite words to mean, your odds aren't good?
Speaker 2:
[24:39] Chance.
Speaker 3:
[24:40] Yeah. Chance, chance. Keep that in mind. It's a big chance and it's a small chance.
Speaker 2:
[24:46] Yeah. No chance in hell. Snowballs chance in hell.
Speaker 1:
[24:51] Well, that is another one that he mentioned.
Speaker 3:
[24:53] A narrow chance and a wide chance.
Speaker 1:
[24:55] It's a body shaming phrase.
Speaker 2:
[24:58] Fat chance and slim chance.
Speaker 1:
[25:01] Exactly. Wow.
Speaker 2:
[25:03] Good.
Speaker 3:
[25:04] What phrases use opposite words to mean, I'll join you? What you would say to a friend who asks if you want to do something, you say, oh yeah, I'm blank blank blank.
Speaker 2:
[25:18] I'm game.
Speaker 3:
[25:19] I'm blank blank it.
Speaker 2:
[25:21] I'm up for it. And or I'm down for it.
Speaker 3:
[25:25] Exactly.
Speaker 1:
[25:26] Wow. Which are you? I mean, these so technically I'm down for it means no thanks.
Speaker 2:
[25:31] But no, it doesn't.
Speaker 1:
[25:32] Well, technically it should is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:
[25:34] If it's the opposite of up for it, right?
Speaker 1:
[25:36] Right. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[25:37] But see, the operative word in there is for, I think. I'm for it. I'm up for it.
Speaker 1:
[25:42] I'm sideways for it though.
Speaker 2:
[25:44] I'm sideways for it.
Speaker 1:
[25:45] I'm left for it. I'm right for it.
Speaker 2:
[25:47] Yeah. All of it. Just say for it. For it is what matters.
Speaker 1:
[25:50] That's true.
Speaker 3:
[25:52] All right. Do you want to do one more?
Speaker 1:
[25:54] Yes.
Speaker 2:
[25:55] I'm up for it.
Speaker 3:
[25:57] This is a good one. I like this one. What phrases use opposite words to mean I'm not happy with this situation?
Speaker 2:
[26:05] No freaking way.
Speaker 1:
[26:06] How many words are we talking?
Speaker 3:
[26:09] It's just a two-word phrase. You would hear like teenagers to say this like, oh, that blank.
Speaker 2:
[26:17] That sucks rocks.
Speaker 3:
[26:19] Yes. Just the first two parts of what you just said.
Speaker 2:
[26:23] That sucks and that blows.
Speaker 3:
[26:26] Exactly.
Speaker 1:
[26:27] Oh, interesting. That is a good one. Those are opposite.
Speaker 3:
[26:32] Technically opposites, but they mean the same thing.
Speaker 2:
[26:35] Same thing.
Speaker 3:
[26:36] Uncontradictory contronyms.
Speaker 1:
[26:38] My son pointed out when he was very young, I think it was Jasper, that there's upside up and it should be downside up, not right side up. Right side up is just sideways. That's crazy talk.
Speaker 2:
[26:52] Nikki recently discovered the great, you can drive on a parkway and park in a driveway.
Speaker 1:
[26:58] That's a good one. That is a good one. Also, when I was reading the dictionary, limit and delimit mean the exact same thing.
Speaker 3:
[27:08] Another good example.
Speaker 1:
[27:09] Thanks, thanks, English. But again, let's just say we love English. We love it for all its craziness because then we wouldn't have puzzles without it.
Speaker 3:
[27:18] It's true.
Speaker 1:
[27:18] Well, thank you, English language and thank you, Eric. That was delightful and terrible. Is that what he was saying?
Speaker 2:
[27:28] That's a good, but isn't-
Speaker 1:
[27:30] Oh, yeah, terrible.
Speaker 2:
[27:32] Right. The word awful has shifted meaning from meaning full of awe in a good way to being something you don't like at all.
Speaker 1:
[27:41] Right.
Speaker 2:
[27:41] Terrible, I think, has the same journey.
Speaker 1:
[27:43] Right. Ivan the Terrible, it was not he was terrible. It was like he was worthy of respect.
Speaker 2:
[27:49] Awesome.
Speaker 1:
[27:50] It was terrible in the old sense. Thank you, listeners, of course. And if you want more puzzling goodness, I mean, come back for more podcasts. But also in the meantime, we have a Patreon, patreon.com/hellopuzzlers. We've got a lovely group of people. We've got bonus episodes, exclusive puzzles, newsletters, videos, all sorts of things. So check it out. There's a free tier and also a VIP tier. And of course, we will see you here next time for more Puzzling Puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2:
[28:30] Thanks for playing along with the team here at Hello Puzzlers. I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer. Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas. The show is produced by Claire Bidigare-Curtis and our senior puzzler is Andrea Schoenberg.