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AJ Jacobs makes The Puzzler podcast, wrote The Puzzler book, and sometimes turns his whole life into a puzzle. He comes bearing word games, explanations of anagrams being used to precipitate wars and were key evidence in trials, tips for writing with a quill, below-the-knee insults, and tales of living constitutionally.
This is the latest in the Word Play miniseries about word games; here are the other episodes.
Content note: there are mentions of guns, historical punishments and violence, vomiting, and drunkenness. There are also a couple of category A swears, and some category C swears.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
There’s a vintage This American Life about Galileo Galilei’s anagrams.
And Jonathan Swift even got involved!
Eleanor Davies, prophet.
“Declaring herself ‘Primate and Metropolitan’ (i.e. archbishop), Lady Eleanor sat on the bishop’s throne and also attacked the new altar hangings with a mixture of tar, hot wheat and starch.”
“Lady Eleanor's trials and tribulations provide substantial evidence in support of an argument that she was a victim of her experiences, though there is also much evidence to show that she was a difficult personality.”
Lewis Carroll’s Doublets puzzles.
The longest word ladder.
Otherlusionists: aside from the other Word Play episodes, there’s The Bee’s Knees that AJ mentions; Take a Swear Pill explains the positive effects of swearing; and The Ballad of Bic and Biro is about a very non-quill-like pen.
Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, fortnightly livestreams with me and my dictionaries, and the Allusioverse Discord community.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
timocracy, noun, chiefly philosophy:
1. a form of government in which possession of property is required in order to hold office.
2. a form of government in which rulers are motivated by ambition or love of honour.
CREDITS:
AJ Jacobs is a writer and the host of The Puzzler daily podcast. His books include The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, and The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, From Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life. AJ’s new book is The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning. Find all his work at AJJacobs.com.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social and instagram.com/allusionistshow
Back in early May with a new episode about exciting work happening in crosswords - HZ.
Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk compellingly about your product, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:
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