Episode Transcript
Hello puzzlers.
Let's start with a quick puzzle.
Our guests today are Will and Mango, hosts of the excellent podcast Part Time Genius.
So in honor of Will and Mango, we are looking for things with the.
Speaker 2Initials w M.
Speaker 1Phrases are people with the initials WM.
For instance, something that you step on before entering a house is a welcome Matt.
That's a WM.
Here's a hint to another.
A big obelisk in Washington, d C.
Is also a WM.
Think of as many wms as you can during the break and we'll return with our guests, W.
Pearson and m Hot ticket order.
Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler podcast the Accent Ball in your Downtown Puzzle Artists Loft.
I'm your host, AJ Jacobson.
I'm here, of course, with Chief Puzzle Officer Greig Pliska Greig.
Before the break, we asked listeners to come up with phrases and people with the initials WM in honor of our guests, Will and Mango.
Anything come to my the obelisk for instance?
Speaker 3Maybe yes, I know the obelisk is the Washington Monument.
Speaker 1That is correct?
Anything else come to mind?
Speaker 3I can I have a snake the water moccasin.
Speaker 2Nicely done.
Speaker 1And I thought it name, by the way, first name.
Speaker 3The Women's movement as a kind of general thing, right good, and and I wrote down wild man.
Speaker 1I like it, all right.
I'll just give you a couple others.
But people send in your favorite w M step the puzzler dot.
Speaker 3You want to give me clues to the couple others so I can guess.
Speaker 1All right, sure, Madam Tussou's is.
Speaker 3One of the wax Museum.
Speaker 2Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1And this is a film about a daydreamer, remade by Ben Stiller.
Speaker 3Oh, Walter Mitty, exactly.
Speaker 1There you go, good to Washington Machine Whole Milk.
But of course our favorite w M.
Combo is the host of Part Time Genius, the podcast asked right here on iHeart Will Pearson and Mango hot Ticketer.
Speaker 2Welcome Will and.
Speaker 4Mangesh Hey, glad to be back.
Speaker 5Day two.
Speaker 1Day two.
You are making it.
You don't look too sweaty.
Part Time Genius, as folks should know, is an awesome podcast with fascinating facts on every topic under the sun and over.
When you started Part Time Genius several years ago, this was interesting.
I hadn't remembered.
You actually used to do some games and puzzles, including a true false quiz that you gave to me Aj Jacobs when I was a guest on your show.
Speaker 5I'd forgotten that.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, I did not.
I it's payback time, it's payback.
Speaker 4How did you do?
Speaker 2I did I do well?
Speaker 1I listened again.
It was four out of five.
You got me on one.
Speaker 4Pretty good.
I feel like that's pretty good.
Speaker 6Well, well, it was always that was always the first tration when teachers would give quizzes that only had five questions or a few questions, Because you miss one and you're already down to a low B.
Speaker 4It's a problem.
It's a big problem.
Speaker 1We've got, like I think we only have five too.
Speaker 4So you're here, we go.
Speaker 6Why we're doing this together.
I like our chances.
We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1Well, you know, you could split up.
So one says true, one says false, So then you could have a coverab like this.
Your true false quiz was about rats lovable rodents.
You asked me, for instance, was the original Chuck E Cheese mascot a RNT?
And the answer was, if you remember, it is true, it is true.
Rick the rat until nineteen ninety three he transitioned into a mouse.
Speaker 5And the world has been so accepting.
Speaker 2Beautiful it is.
Speaker 1It is a nice lesson in tolerance.
And but I also love that he started out chomping cigar like he was just like a maybe not like yeah.
I don't know if he was drinking, but he was certainly smoking.
Speaker 3All right.
Speaker 1So, as I said, I've been waiting to get back te at you.
And my true false quiz has a little puzzly twist.
It is a true false quiz about things that contain the word true or false, So it's a meta true false quiz, thank you exactly.
For instance, I might give you a true false question about George Washington's false teeth true or false?
Where George Washington's.
Speaker 2Teeth made of wood?
Speaker 1And you might remember, No, oh, I guess I should sphrase it.
George Washington's teeth were made of foot true or false?
That's how true false were.
Speaker 4Answer.
Speaker 2Okay, I'm learning.
I'm learning.
Speaker 1It's only our four hundred show, all right, So yes, that is an herban legend.
George Washing his teeth false teeth were not made of wood.
They were when he was president, made of hippo and Elephant Ivory.
Uh, all right, so your first true false question is about false starts in track and field, true or false.
The definition of a false start is when a runner moves before the starting gun is fired.
True or false?
True?
Speaker 6Right, I think, Well, I'm trying to decide whether this is a semi trick.
Speaker 4Question because I don't know that movement is illegal.
Speaker 6So much as leaving their block, like leaving their starting block, I don't know.
Speaker 4I just feel like these guys may be tricking as many I didn't.
Speaker 3Also tell you guys, I don't know the answers.
I haven't seen this one, so I could be more.
I could either be helpful or hurtful by weighing in with what I think.
Speaker 5Oh, yeah, may or.
Speaker 4What do you think?
Speaker 3What do you think?
Yeah?
Speaker 4I want to call my friend Greg.
Speaker 3Would I'm with the wheel that he could be trying to trick it.
Yeah, But I also don't think you have to completely leave the starting block right because it's hundreds of a second.
Your foot might start to go, but you're still touching it.
So so I'm no help at all really for you guys.
Speaker 5Let's let's go with Greg's at Greg and Will's answer so.
Speaker 1You're saying false or or no or yes, you say false, Okay, false is correct?
That is you got it.
I enjoy the tricks, but it wasn't that.
The difference was you can be busted for a false start even if you begin to run after the pistol is fired, because you can if you start within point one seconds of the pistol, that counts as a false start.
Speaker 4Even if you got it for the reason you had it for.
Speaker 1The wrong reason.
The idea is the human brains cannot react that quickly, so that means the runner guessed when the gun would be fired instead of waiting to hear it, and that's not allowed.
Psychic gifts are very much looked down upon and penalized and running.
So I love that one.
Speaker 4So that's a good one.
Speaker 5Gamble should like you should be rewarded for that gamble exactly.
Speaker 1Well, I will say the problem with that would be because I thought about it, like the running races would start about forty two times because everyone would try their own time to Yeah.
Speaker 3I think there's a rule like in the Olympics, if you false start twice, you're disqualified.
Speaker 1Right, still got you still get like eight fall starts, So right.
I've got another true false question about the nineteen ninety one Madonna documentary Truth or Dare true or false?
Warren Baby, who was Madonna's boyfriend at the time of filming, demanded more screen time in the final cut.
Speaker 6A clarification here, more screen time than Madonna or more screen time just generally.
Speaker 1The great question for terrifying more screen time than he had in the version he saw got it.
Speaker 4What do you think, Mango?
If it's not true, it feels.
Speaker 5Like it should.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3Isn't it true that you're so vain?
By Carly Simon was written about Warren Batty.
Speaker 4Oh Wally?
Speaker 3Is that true?
Is that just a pocket?
I don't know, but that's the you know.
Speaker 1Well, I remember a couple of years ago they actually she auctioned off the secret for like one hundred thousand dollars.
So I don't think anyone but the person who one knows for sure, but that's always what I've heard as well.
Speaker 3Right, So that could imply I don't claim that Warren Baty is vain, but.
Speaker 2Very good, but very good.
Yeah.
Speaker 4Yeah, what do you think, Mango?
Speaker 5Yeah, it feels true.
Speaker 4It feels like we I want it to be true.
So I feel like we.
Speaker 1Should go in the direction that is you know what, that is a very twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2Do you want something to be true?
Speaker 4Yeah?
True?
Speaker 2I like that.
Speaker 1Well, I got you, I got you, so we are it might be down to a B minus.
It is false, quite the opposite.
Warren Baty was Madonna's boyfriend at the time of filming, and but then they broke up and he called his lawyer said he did not agree to be in the film.
Should they called, they threatened.
Madonna basically said, screw off.
He saw the signs that said we're filming.
He doesn't get to see it, and it is a hiltious I rewatched some of it and it is hilarious caause he this is like the beginning of reality TV, and he is so unco comfortable.
He is like an old man who is just like, why are we Why is this on?
Speaker 4Why?
Speaker 2What's going on?
Speaker 5Old?
Speaker 3Anyway, that's crazy.
He must have been like thirty years older than her at the time, right it.
Speaker 1Was I think about twenty twenty two or something, but definitely yeah.
Speaker 6Wow.
Speaker 1By the way, I mentioned George Washington in the intro, and I feel I need an update from you because I was listening to an episode a Part Time Genius where you had serious plans to start a mount rushmore competitor.
If you recall this because you found an actual mountain with a rock formation that looks exactly like Martin van Buren.
Speaker 2I need an update.
How is that?
Have you?
Speaker 4How are planned the permits it's got on the pyramits.
Speaker 6There's there was some conflict there, but yeah, and we decided mainly just to make it only.
Speaker 4Van Buren's it would just be different van Buren poses.
So it's evolved over time.
Speaker 1Yeah, I love it, so like Van Buren is a kid Van Buren.
Speaker 6Yeah, yeah, van Buren playing tennis, which I don't think he did.
But it just sort of makes it more modern, you know.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah yeah, vaping maybe venture and vaping.
Speaker 4I like that.
Speaker 1Yeah, that is great.
Well, that is going to be huge when it does open, and you will you can even quit your side hustle because people might not know.
Part Time Genius really is a part time job for Will and Mango.
Speaker 5Uh.
Speaker 1They both do other things, believe it or not.
Mango produces awesome shows with his company Kaleidoscope, including some he does himself, some he he does not host, but he did one called Skyline Drive, a deep dive into astrology awesome, the sad, and Will happens to be a big wig at iHeart, which happens also to be our platform.
So you will you deal with lots of shows like not just us, believe it or not, but like maybe.
Speaker 6Mainly mainly, so I'd say probably eighty percent of my time is dealing with you guys.
And then there's some we know every once in a while with the NFL or Will Ferrell or you know, some shows like that, but but mainly you guys.
Speaker 1Yes, we feel like, yeah, we wanted to hear that.
That is exactly what we were waiting that feat.
All right, I got we're not going to make all five, but we'll make four, all right.
Next question is already gone down.
It's true, you guys are screwed.
I'm sorry.
Maybe we'll end there just so you have a terrible show half and half to screw you, all right.
The next question is a true or false question about falsetto voices, which is as you know, when men saying.
Speaker 5Like, don't stop doing it.
Speaker 1I don't know, Yeah, all right, true or false?
The year nineteen seventy five was the high point for falsetto voices in pop music.
It was when falsetto voices from Males was at its most popular that very year, nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 2True or false?
Speaker 4What do you think, Mango?
It does feel?
I mean, it definitely was of the time.
Speaker 6I keep I now can't stop thinking about the justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon doing the very gifts thing.
Speaker 5It's so funny how life infuses everything, like the true or false like thing.
I was just thinking about the Wayne and Garth and Madonna doing.
Speaker 3Yeah oh yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 5Yeah, I think true as well.
Speaker 6It feels yeah, that feels right, It feels it was out that era.
Speaker 3Like it it true is true?
Saturday Night Fever, that was it.
Speaker 2Exactly the Begs.
Speaker 1And this, by the way, is objective fact because Vox Media did an an in depth investigation.
They analyzed hundreds of thousands of songs.
It's hilarious watch the YouTube video and uh and Beg's it was the Beg's era.
Fox said, we are having another golden age of false shadow.
There's like a lot of false shadow going on.
Speaker 5Yeah, you know, you know what.
I love that type of analysis where you and and for the back page of Mental Philosopher for a little while after you'd run through the A to Z of the know it all a because you said, to the back page for short bit we would uh test the veracity of different slogans and things.
And and one thing we did was tested, is Virginia really for lovers?
And and then we we we went through all the states and figured out like how much berry White was played on the radio, how much wine they were drinking, flowers were set like, Virginia was like thirty seventh or something.
Speaker 4I think Ohio was dead last if I know, well.
Speaker 1What was do you remember the number one state for lovers.
Speaker 2Have been like white?
Speaker 6Yeah, it was weirdly like and I think part of that was because of the population.
Speaker 5I think that they were more than wine.
Speaker 3And you know, yeah, you're stuck inside, it's cold.
What else are you gonna do?
That's right on the very white and light of fire and you're set all right?
Speaker 1All right, So there you go, people who want romance move to Alaska, all right?
Speaker 2Last one.
Speaker 1And you know what, I will give you like an extra ten bonus points if you get it, so you'll get back up to as good this is about false advertising, true or false.
Two men sued Universal Studios for false advertising over the movie Yesterday Did You See That One, a romantic comedy about the Beatles lovely movie.
The men said that the studio engaged in false advertising because the actress Anna de Arma was in the trailer but not in the movie itself, and they wanted their three dollars and ninety nine cents back, but ended up spending seven hundred thousand dollars on legal fees.
Speaker 4Holy moldly true or false?
So that whole thing has to be either true or false.
Speaker 3God, Anna day armis with an end.
Speaker 1No, it's it's this other actress named Anna de Arma.
Yeah, yep, sorry about that, Anna.
Speaker 3Would that would very false if it was.
Speaker 2Yeah, that could have That was the trick.
That was the trick.
You caught it.
Speaker 4This sounds vaguely familiar.
I did not see this film, but Mango, what about you?
Speaker 5I didn't see the film either, but she wasn't on my radar back then.
But I don't know.
Speaker 3That's This is the film about the guy who.
Speaker 5Like has a mesa and then like yeah.
Speaker 3But it's like he he remembers the Beatles, right, Everyone else's doesn't know the Beatles exist, so he ends up writing quote unquote all the Beatles songs because he knows them and.
Speaker 1Nobody because I love the premise.
I think it is a hilarious premise, very fun movie.
Speaker 2So what do you think?
True or false?
Speaker 3So you're saying they filmed scenes with her and him, right, we're in the trailer, but then they cut them out of the final movie.
Speaker 1And these guys were pissed because they had spent their three dollars ninety nine cents to see Anna dey Are Moss and she was not in it.
Speaker 3So I will just add I think this rings a bell, this thing about her not actually being in the movie.
That doesn't really help with us knowing whether it's true or not.
That people sued about it.
Speaker 6Yeah, I you know, like we said before, this is a twenty twenty five answer, because I want.
Speaker 4This to be.
Speaker 5Show.
Speaker 6I always want the weird things to be true.
The weird things should always be true, well when they're.
Speaker 4Good, should be true.
Speaker 2So true, what do you think?
Speaker 5Mango true?
Speaker 3I'll support that all true.
Speaker 1It is true, well almost, I'm gonna I was gonna give it to you either way, because I think it, but it is true.
Almost everything is true except that they had to pay the seven hundred thousand in legal fees.
It is true that the case racked up seven hundred thousand in legal fees for Universal, but there was a big arbitration and they ended up just saying all right, everyone pays their own.
Speaker 2But just I love the story.
Speaker 1I feel it's like a David and Goliath, like they were outraged by this injustice and they are like, this is a social justice campaign that everyone should get behind.
Speaker 2Well, you were terrific.
Speaker 3You got I'm going to read out on four plus the extra ten.
Speaker 4Point ninety eight points.
Oh wow, Okay, I love the math on the.
Speaker 1Well Van Tat, thank you Mango and will you are you have ben you well?
I guess I did not avenge myself successfully, but I loved having you on.
And we get you for one more day.
I've got one more true false about true false for the folks at home.
True or false?
The name of the town in New Mexico Truth or consequences that is a real town truth or consequences that started as an April fool's hoax?
Is that true?
Where is that false?
Come back and find out and In the meantime, if you have a little time, check out our Instagram feed at Hello puzzler.
Speaker 2No, it's not that.
It's at Hello false alert.
Speaker 1And we will meet here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles.
Speaker 2They will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 7Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg pliska chief puzzle officer, here with the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
We had Will and Mango with us to do a whole bunch of fun, and we started with some earbuses our favorite trademark pending audio Rebus puzzle.
Your extra credit AJ actually gave you two that used the same the kind of same mechanism.
Speaker 3One was Bizna Bizna and the other one was Franz Schubert's sympon.
The answer, as you've probably gotten, is unfinished, unfinished business and unfinished symphony.
But don't leave your puzzling week unfinished.
Join us here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.