Aha Moments and Presidential Secrets

Hello, puzzlers! I had a crazy idea. Let's start with a quick warm-up puzzle. A couple of days ago, we did a warm-up puzzle related to the United States, the States. So here's the follow-up. Another US state-related intro puzzle. This one is about Colorado. Because this month is the anniversary of the founding of the Colorado Territory. 165th anniversary, happy anniversary. So I have two questions. First is Colorado a rectangle? Second, if it is not, how many sides does Colorado have? I'll give you a head to the first. It's not a rectangle, because otherwise this would not be a good-- Why would you ask the question? Yeah, I would be pretty boring, intro puzzle. But the second I am not going to tell you how many sides does Colorado have, after the break, we're going to have a little contest between Greg and him and Andrea to see who comes closest to. How many sides does the state of Colorado have? Hello, puzzlers. Welcome back to the Hello Puzzlers Podcast, the bottom figure on your puzzle totem, Paul, because the person on the bottom, often was the most important and prestigious figure, contrary to the saying, FYI. I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I am here with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Plyska and Adam Newhouse, Super Producer, Andrea Schoenberg, our Senior Puzzler. Before the break, I asked, is Colorado a rectangle? Then I answered it. No, it's not. So I ask, how many sides does Colorado have? All right, let's go around and ask, Adam, why don't you start? I'm going to say seven. Seven sides for Colorado. All right, Andrea? All right, let's say 10, 10. Okay. I don't know. So I object on so many grines. Oh, boy. I'm going to hang up. I want to remind everybody that the earth is a sphere. We're going to get to that. Just make your guess. Okay. And then we'll get to that. Well, because it's not a rectangle, but no matter what. But it does look super rectangular on the map. Right. I'm going to guess that there's just a little chunk taken out of it, similar to Utah, and that it's six sided. And it's got one, because clearly these are straight line cuts. If they're not straight line, then it's fractal and there's, it's as infinite sides. Well, Andrea, wait, what did you say? Who said 10? She said 10. 10. Andrea, you would. I do would be a free trip to Colorado. Because you're closest, but you did not get it. The answer is it is a 697 sided polygon. A hexa, hexa, anaconda, hexagon. And there are two reasons it's not rectangular. One, Greg alluded to. The earth is round, or round-ish. It's not really round. Sphereical-ish, obloid, obloid, I guess, with some reviews, obloid. So the top of the northern border is going to be a little shorter than the southern border. But the real problem is Colorado was set up by 19th century surveyors, and they just sucked at their job. They screwed it up badly. Which is terrible. So instead of going straight, which is what they wanted to do, the border technically zigzags all over the place and creates a 697 sided polygon. So there you go. Congratulations to Andrea. We have two fuzzles today, not 697. Just two. Greg's going to give me one or us one in a little bit. But first I have a puzzle. It's kind of about puzzles, because it's all about aha moments. All about aha. Aha. Aha. Different types of aha moments. Because it's not just the one aha moment. For instance, what kind of moment is this? This is an example. The moment you realize that a Japanese piano company and a Japanese motorcycle company were originally the same company. Adam, you got any thoughts about Kawasaki? Hmm. Close. Yeah. What? Greg? Well, not that close. Not close at all. It is a Japanese company. No, you want, but I think we need a word that has aha at the end of it. Okay. Aha is the company we want. Exactly. The Yamaha moment. So that is the moment. And that actually was a moment for me. I once had a Yamaha moment. I'm like, oh, wait. And I looked it up and yes, they originally star. I think they're separate now. All right. So all of these are words that contain the letters A, H, A. Sometimes at the end, sometimes in the middle. Got it. I'm just early at the end. Okay. And they often sound like aha, but not always. All right. This is the moment. I can't decide to. Let me give it to I'll alternate between Greg and Adam. The moment you realize that this city in Nebraska is home to billionaire Warren Buffett, not singer, Jimmy Buffett. Very nice. Love the geography. Adam. You go ahead. Is this your, uh, omaha? That's the omaha moment. Exactly. I never heard that one. Here. It's very lovely in omaha. Very good art scene. That's what I hear. Oh, see. Travel tips. So much here. All right. This is the moment anybody who actually thinks Jimmy Buffett is from Omaha. I'm sure there is at least one person among the eight billion. Okay. Okay. And they will have if they listen, the omaha, you'll have an omaha moment. The moment Greg, the moment you realize that this Caribbean country is not a single island, but instead made up of more than 3000 islands. That is, um, uh, that is the Bahamas moment. Exactly. The Bahamas moment. Uh, all right. We got for you. Adam, we've got the moment you realize that this Indian leaders first name at birth was Mohandis, not the honorific we often refer to him as Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma moment. The Mahatma moment. Very good. All right. We got a couple more. The moment Greg, the moment you realize, and actually I kind of had this. I had this aha moment. This one I really did have the moment you realize that this type of steak is named because it looks like a native American X. So I, you know, I met first thought Omaha steaks because that's the good point. Delivered steaks, but that's not what you want. It is not. You want, uh, the axe would be a Tomahawk moment. Exactly. Tom aha. And you're saying it's not named for the Tomahawk or it is. It looks like it because it's got that bone in it, right? I mean, I never, I was my son's a an ordered it and it came out and I'm like, Oh, I guess it looks like an X. So that's why it's a Tomahawk. Yeah. Where do you find out what the T-bone is named for? I'm really excited. Nice. I love, I gotta just say I love this puzzle, not just for the wordplay, but because all of the clues are actually things you might have in a home moment about. Well, this one actually, this comes from Andrea. Thank you, Andrea. And this is also a possible real life, aha moment, which is the moment you realize the name for this desert is Arabic for desert. So calling it blank desert is actually redundant. Anyone is welcome to desert desert. Yes. This is the Sahara desert. Yes. You're Sahara moment. I'm just sorry. We've done, we've probably mentioned this before, but my favorite example of this is the baseball team, the Los Angeles Angels. Yeah. That's a great one. They're no longer there. Angels Angels. The, the Angels Angels. Oh, that's good. The Angels Angels Angels Angels Angels. Los Angeles Angels. Right. The Angels Angels Angels Angels. And recently I saw Hassan Manaj comedy specialist where he goes off on Chai T. Oh, there you go. Great point. Excellent. Excellent. Another good one. Yep. All right. Two more. We got the moment you realize the white whale was a metaphor for obsession. The white whale was a metaphor for obsession. And who's trying to give it to you, Greg? Oh, it's me. That's your, uh, Moby Dick, Captain Ahab moment. Yes. Your aha moment. Maybe quick way. That's it. Ahab, Captain Ahab, which I'm reading, by the way, very interesting, fascinating book. Oh, fascinating book. And as a bit of a slog in places, well, see, that's what's interesting to me. I love facts so much. I would be okay if they cut out the plot and just gave me the wailing. Like how do you strip a whale in, in the 19th century? The anatomical, quick, gross and detailed. Do you know why it's like that? Do you know why the book is what it is? No, tell me. Because Melville, I believe, because Melville married into a family where the, uh, the father had this enormous library and Melville hadn't read a bunch of this stuff. Because before Moby Dick, he was known as an author of kind of, you know, see going adventures, Taipei and Omo and these. And so he, he discovers his father-in-law's library and starts reading all, all of these things he's never read before. And as he's writing Moby Dick, he starts including stuff he's read in the book. At one point, he reads Shakespeare's plays. So there's a section of Moby Dick that is a play, all of a sudden. So he just has, he has ADHD, which I do. I mean, I once met with an editor who told me like she was head of random house and she's like, if I was submitted, Moby Dick, I would hack away at it. It would be like half. He might have also been going quietly insane. I'm not sure, but he certainly was just inundated with knowledge that he just felt compelled to throw in. Well, it's a fascinating book. Fascinating. All right. Last one. The moment you realize that this "sit in them for hubbub" or "ruckus" is derived from a French word for the laugh of the devil. A devil's laugh. That sounded like it. The devilish, straight, please. Adam, you know this one? I was going to say a gaffal moment. That doesn't have the right. The neb the H-A. It's got the sounds. No, this is a synonym for "hull up a loo hubbub" or "ruckus" "fearer" or "ruh-haha." Yes, "ruh-haha" moment. That I had. I didn't know that, but I love it. "Ruh-haha." It was in a proudly French place when they had the devil character laughing. He would say "ruh-haha," which is kind of similar to our "wah-haha" or "wah-haha." "wah-haha." Right. We discussed the spelling of that at one point, I believe. That's it. All right. Well, I hope you enjoyed those "ah-ha" moments. We have a lot more "ah-ha" moments coming up in a moment. Hello, puzzleers. I want to tell you about a delightful new addition to my morning routine. Of course, the first thing I do in the morning is the crossword, then connections, but after that I have a delicious "ah-sa-i-berry" pomegranic drink made by the folks at "I am eight." This is a drink with 92 nutrient-rich ingredients that's designed by folks from the Mayo Clinic and Cedar, Si and I, and tested in clinical trials. And since I started drinking "I am eight" a few weeks ago, I'm feeling more energetic. I'm feeling my puzzling mind is sharper. Now could this be the placebo effect? It could be. But you know what? I am not going to take the chance. It's working for me and I'm going to keep drinking my "I am eight" every day. And if you want to join me, go to iameighthealth.com/hellopuzzlers and use the code "hellopuzzlers" for a free welcome kit, "5 free travel sachets plus 10% off your order." That's "I am the number 8 H-E-A-L-T-H".com/hellopuzzlers, code "hellopuzzlers" for a free welcome kit, "5 free travel sachets plus 10% off your order." "Sache a good obscure word" means a little package. "I am eight" health.com/hellopuzzlers, code "hellopuzzlers." These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose reacure or prevent any disease. As some listeners might know, I recently read "Moby Dick," which to my surprise, I like quite a bit. Now how did I have time to read an 800 page book? I will tell you. It is thanks to Factor Meals. I am not kidding. Factor Meals are healthy, delicious, fully prepared meals designed by dieticians and created by chefs and sent straight to your home. There are a hundred rotating meals to choose from for all sorts of tastes, including vegetarian, like me. There's muscle pro for the protein cravings out there. No prep, no stress. I'm particularly loving the Maranara mushroom lasagna very tasty. So even if you don't want to read "Moby Dick," but do want extra time and less hassle in your life. Head to FactorMeals.com/puzzlers50off. That's "puzzlers," the numbers 50 OFF, and then use that same code "puzzlers50off" to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with Factor. New subscribers only varies by plan. One free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active. Welcome back to the Hello Puzzlers podcast. We are here. We just solved one puzzle. Lots of aha moments. But we got more aha moments coming up. We do. We got Greg Plyska has written a puzzle just for us. What do you have, Greg? Well, I thought given that we are heading into President's weekend. And President's day, I should do a puzzle about Presidents. Excellent choice. You recently did. I think it was an intro puzzle about the countries whose names are also English words. Right. Yep. There's a similarly classic question about US Presidents. There are eight presidential surnames that are common and scrabble legal English words. So they're not capitalized words. Okay. There are four others that are archaic or variant spellings that I'll mention at the end. But can you guys name the common real presidents? This isn't even the puzzle. I got another puzzle. This is a warm up puzzle. The warm up puzzle. This is the vice presidential puzzle. All right. Well, what if we go around? That'll give us a little time. Go ahead. Wait, is it the first name or the last name or both? Only last names. Only surname. All right. I'm going to go. I'll just take easy ones. I'll do a bush because you got yes, the two bushes. Does that count twice? Because they're two. That counts only as one one surname. I'll go with Ford. The Gerald Ford. Very good. You know, do you realize that Ford is both a noun and a verb, meaning the place you cross a river or two cross that river? Turns out it's also a slang term for a highly successful fashion design. Huh. Because like Tom Ford after Tom Ford. Yeah. And it comes, no, from the Ford car, which was popular but low price. So it would be a low priced copy of a successful high-price style would be a Ford. All right. Good. There you go. Learn it. Okay. We got Ford. What else? Andrea, you want to guess one? Pears. Pears, Franklin. Pears, of course. All right. Nice. I'll do it Trump. Yeah. Donald Trump. Well, I have one that it's not spelled right, but phonetically it works. Which is okay, which is maybe get half point. Poke. I like that. Poke. Well, it turns out that is also a variant spelling of the word poke, P-U-L-K, which is a muddy pond or mud hole. That doesn't count as one of the eight common words, but we'll give you, you know, partial credit. Nice. All right. Andrea, what do you got? Van Buren. No. Van. Well, Van. What about Van? Van. No, it's a full surname. There's sticklers here in the puzzle lab. Of course. Of course. Can I get a number? You can, but I don't have them in front of me and Lord knows I can't. Two of these are three of these are 20th century presidents. One came right after Ford, in fact. Oh, I don't know. So the number was going to help me to seem like I know the exact order. This is a word for a teamster or someone who drives a truck or another vehicle that carries goods. Is that the same one you're talking the guy? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking, yeah. So it's sort of like a don't push over the apple or don't put the card or Jimmy Carter. Got right. Nice. Got Adam. You got another one? I got, well, I got Martin. Is that common enough? The very left. Martin. Not a surname. That's the first name of Martin. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. Very good. Very good. Taft is not a word. What about Grant? That's a branch. Very good. Yes. You list these S grant. How many do we have left? You have there are two presidents that share a surname. One of whom was impeached Johnson. Yep. There you go. Andrew and Lyndon B. Johnson, which of course is a slang term for and that makes the scrabble dictionary. Sure does. Wow. Look at the score. Why not? What's that? He's a Hoover. Hoover. Hoover is your last one. Hoover makes it. Yep. The verb to suck up like a vacuum cleaner. All right. We did it. You got all eight. The other of archaic ones are Tyler, which is a variance spelling of Tyler, one who lays tiles. Hayes. An archaic word for shark is a hey, HAYE. So Hayes is the plural of that word. And it turns out that Biden is an archaic past tense of bold. It didn't bode well. It did it it bided ill. It bided ill. So interesting. There are a lot of archaic ones. All of archaic ones. Great. All right. But that's just the warm up you're telling us. Yeah. Right. You actually you actually tease this a little bit. Last week when you asked us who's which president has the word ham in his name. Oh. And that was Abraham Lincoln. That's right. Abraham. And in fact, when you realized it had ham in its name, that was an Abraham Lincoln. Nice. Good call back. He's got a high in there too. So you you you laid the groundwork for this puzzle. I'm calling it presidential secrets. I'm going to give you a word and you have to tell me the president inside whose name that word is hidden. So you would say ham and we would say Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln. I did they go over the first and last names like is the first few the first few are just going to be an either the first or last name, but eventually we're going to get to one. You get over the names and maybe even the middle initials. we might really go for it there. - All right, I'm not sure I know. I guess S, there's S. All right, I'm ready. - You know some middle initials. All right, here's, this one, you guys are gonna get this one right away. The word is rack, R-A-C-K. - R-A-C, oh, I did get it. By rock, Obama. - Yes, very good. How about the word more, M-O-R-E? - The more. - Nice. - Yes, Millard Fillmore. His name is almost all other words. - Mill, Lard Fillmore. - Oh, look at him. How about Wig, not the party, W-H-I-G, but the head covering W-I-G. - Interesting. Ludwig Van Beethoven. Was he your president? - Not of the United States. - Hmm, I don't know. I'm having trouble, anyone, guys? The wig, there was. - It's a first name. - Dwight. - Yes. - Dwight, the wig. - The wig it. - Dwight, which president? - Donald Trump. - Oh, there you go, very good. How about Shin, SHIN? - Huh, Shin. - Washington. - Oh, no, that's cool. - Yeah, Andrea, very quick, George Washington. - And he's got a lot to wash, ash, ashing. - Yeah, washing, ton. - How about into? - I am too. - Hold on, I'm stumped for now. Well, tell us this is the first or last name. That'll help. Last name? - Last name. Well, we should know it. Into, into, into, into. I'll just keep saying it until one of you get it. Come on, into, into, into. (laughing) How about it's not, well, I'm feeling it's early in the, is it early in the early? - We'll be feeling wrong. This is late 20th century. - Well, late 20th century. Okay, well, then we've got-- - Oh, well, of course. - Clinton. - Yeah. - Oh, Clinton. - Yeah, that was, yeah. Not very strong performance of that one. - No, we are. - You gotta do it. - We'll just shut out the gas. - That's it. - And it'll seem like you got it right away. - Yeah, please do, please do. How about, how about lid? LID. - LID, all right. Another one that I doesn't come immediately. How about, all right, give us first or last name. - He's 20th century. His first and last name start with the same letter. - Oh, that's the other way. - The letter C. - Oh, Crover-C- - Cleve-Lidge. - No, Calvin Coolidge. - Calvin Coolidge. - All right. - Crover-C- - When you say Cleveland, you meant Cooley. - Clover-C-Lidge. - Crover-C-Lidge. Yes, Cro-L-Clover-Cleve-Lidge. - How about the word odor, od-or? Uh, hmm, odor. All right, it is a first or last name. Give us that. - First name. - Woodrow Wilson. - Nice. - No, no, no. - No, no, no, no, no, no. - That would be Woodrow. - Woodrow. - Woodrow. - Oder. - Oder. - First name. - It's a first name. - One of two presidents with the same last name. They were in fact related. - Oh, well, Ted, Theodore. Theodore. - There you go. Theodore Roosevelt. - Theodore Roosevelt. - Roosevelt. All right, do you think getting a little trickier? How about birth, B-E-R-T-H? - Well, he's saying trickier. So I'm guessing that it's gonna be over two, right? Is it gonna end with birth and start with H? - Hmm, maybe certainly is. Also, a literative, same first letter and first and last name. - Hubert. - Wait, is that Herbert Hoover? - Herbert Hoover. - Yes, there you go. Herbert Hoover. - Herbert Hoover. - You were thinking of a presidential candidate, Hubert Humphrey. - Yes. - I was thinking of birth B-I-R-T-H. I needed to be- - That's why I spelled it for you. - Oh, I didn't listen. - This has got me thinking, there's a lot of presidents that have the same letter, first name and last name. - Yeah, well, - Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, - Well, that's true, that's true. - Well, that's what happens when you line up 46 white guys and some of them are gonna share the same name. - Turns out, - The lot of James and John's, the Jays are like way over represented. - Yeah, it's not fair. (laughing) - All right, I've got a few more. How about NADA, N-A-D-A? - All right, well, I think we're still at John Adams. - Yeah, very quick. John Adams. - The Fr- yeah, the Fr- I always, I guess I'm always started from the first, which was by Washington, (laughing) but so quick. I was also really quick on Washington and then Adams is right there, so. - You just start thinking in order through all the presidents. - Yes. - All right, well, this is gonna take you a while to get to this one. - The word is level, the word is level, L-E-V-E-L. - So it's either, - That's what it's gonna be. - It's not a sleep. - The last name, oh well. - Cleveland, Cleveland. - Yes, Grover Cleveland. - Are there Cleveland? - Yeah. - There he is. All right, well see if you can get this one. The word is strum, STRUM. - STRUM. - All right, so I think I got it. And this one is, this is where he's talking about the middle letter, the S, which stands for nothing, right? Isn't it? Harry S. - That's what they're saying, yeah. - Oh, Truman. - Harry S. Truman. - And it's just an S. - It's just an S. - It's just an S. - It's an S. - He was so poor as a kid. They could not afford the other letters. - They could not afford a middle name. - Yeah. - All right, your last one is saga, S-A-G-A. - Oh, I like it. - Well, I'm gonna say, oh, he's got it. - You got it. - James Garfield. - There it is. - James A. Garfield. - James A. Garfield. Excellent show, by the way, death by lightning. Like a mini series about the assassination of James Garfield. - Charles Gato. - Yeah. - Speaking of words that end with A.U. Charles Gato. - Oh, very good. - Also a fellow Williams College alum. Gotta say that. - Oh, congrats. Well, I read his autobiography after that because I was so fascinated. And he, I mean, he legitimately was mentally ill. But one of the things he did while in jail-- - Not all Williams alums, just one to say. - He sold his photo. He was like an influencer. He said, I will give, if you pay me 25 cents, I will send you a signed photo. So, yeah, a real pioneer. - Thank you, Greg. Happy President's Day, everybody. Wait, isn't it also Valentine's Day coming up? - Yeah. - Yeah. - Tomorrow. So, don't forget about-- - I didn't do anything about love, sorry. - I did write a poem. Maybe this is a good time. I'll do it. It's a fact checker's Valentine poem because I thought it was appropriate to sort of the nitpicking that sometimes happens on the show. - No, I would never-- - No pointing, no pointing. - All right, the fact checkers Valentine poem. Only 65% of roses are actually red. Violets are usually purple, not blue. But one thing that's unquestionably true is that I love you. There it is. The fact checkers Valentine poem. - I like that. - I like that. - I didn't know you were such a poet. (laughing) - Yeah, it's just another talent. But yes, please tell us what you think. You can do it on Patreon. We have a Patreon, patreon.com/hellopuzzlers. And we'll put more poems on there if that's what you want, but we've got bonus episodes, exclusive puzzles, newsletters, chats with us, videos, and we would love to hang out. We love forming this community of puzzlers. Speaking of puzzles, we'll see you next time for more Puzzling Puzzles that we'll puzzle you puzzlingly. (piano music) Thanks for playing along with the team here at Hello Puzzlers. I'm Greg Pluska, your chief puzzle officer. Our executive producers are Neely Lomon and Adam Newhouse of Newhouse Ideas. The show is produced by Claire Bittigar Curtis and our senior puzzler is Andrea Schoenberg. (upbeat music)