Remixed Metaphors

Hello, puzzlers. I thought today we could start with a quick intro puzzle. And this puzzle

is in honor of an unsung American hero, the late great Pamela Lowe. Pamela Lowe was

born 98 years ago this week, and she is the woman, the genius behind Cap'n Crunch serial.

She created the flavor for Cap'n Crunch based on her grandmother's brown sugar and butter

sauce. So very healthy. Very nice. You know, her name is actually Pamela, right? P-A-M-A-Poster-F-E-L-A?

That's right, Pamela Lowe. Pamela. She said she wanted the serial to have a certain quality

of want-mourishness. That's a nice euphemism for addictive. And she succeeded. Cap'n Crunch

debuted in 1963 and has been a delicious and unhealthy part of American breakfasts ever since.

There goes our sponsorship deal. Well, I did. Delicious. You know, it's frozen. And it has been so

successful. It has spawned some spin-offs. You might know some peanut butter crunch,

Cap'n Crunch berries. How many Cap'n Crunch spin-offs have there been? What's a guess? What is the

listener's, what do you think? Maybe seven. Twelve. Twelve, a good guess. Forty-six. Well,

that's 46. Forty-six. Forty-six varieties of Cap'n Crunch. To stash you, cardamom, Cap'n Crunch.

I mean, what's going on? I like that idea. Listen, pitch it. There is no cardamom, but there is

orange cream pop crunch. Sprinkle donut crunch in case you don't have enough sugar in your regular.

Home run crunch to celebrate the World Series, I think. I don't have time to read all the names,

but in honor of Ms. Lowe's birthday, I'm going to give you three real Cap'n Crunch flavors and one

fake one. And I will ask you to guess the fake one. Galactic glow crunch, mystery volcano crunch,

polar crunch, and a race car crunch. Which of those is fake? Is it galactic glow crunch,

mystery volcano crunch, polar crunch, or race car crunch? The answer, and more, sweet, sweet

puzzling after the break. On big lives, we take a single cultural icon. People like Jane

Fonda, George Michael, little Richard. And we pull apart the story behind the image.

And we do this by digging through the BBC's vast archives. Discovering forgotten interviews

that change exactly how we see these giants of our culture. We're here for the messy,

the brilliant, the human version of our heroes. I'm Emmanuel Jochi. And Kai Wright. And this is Big

Lives. Listen to Big Lives wherever you get your podcasts.

What are you thinking about right now? Hi there, it's Nala here host of ideas,

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Hello, folks. Welcome back to the Hello Puzzlers podcast. The Mason-Jarger Fireflies on your

Puzzle Backwatch. I am your host, A.J. Jacobs, and I'm here, of course, with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg

Poliska. Greg, before the break, we ask, can you guess the fake cap and crunch spin off?

Cap and crunch has an astounding jaw rotting 46 spin-offs over the years.

And the three of these following are real. One, I created galactic glow crunch, mystery volcano

crunch, polar crunch, and race car crunch. Which do you think? I like galactic glow. That feels like

ridiculous thing that will appeal to children. And I like mystery volcano because it makes no

sense at all. I'm going to keep that in. It's not just volcano. I can see volcano crunch,

right? But no, this is mystery volcano. Telling you which volcano. And then there was

what were the race car and polar crunch. Polar crunch. Polar crunch is boring, but not as boring

as race car. So I'm going to guess that race car is the fake one. All right. Well, I appreciate

your appreciation of galactic glow crunch because I made that up. I made that up.

I could work at a sugar cereal. You're in. And I just love, I thought it was important to highlight

mislows work and just the crazy number of spin-offs. I did listen to a business podcast, which said

that's what junk food is all about. You don't need to create new ones, like just make another

variety of Oreos, like just like the 123rd variety of Oreos. And that's a better way to make money.

Right. So you made up galactic glow. See the good thing about that is it's a

literative. That automatically capping crunch galactic glow. I'm like, oh, it must be right.

Well, thank you. Well, speaking of cap and I actually have one more important thing to discuss,

which is the longstanding controversy over whether cap and crunch is actually a cap and

do you want to guess why it's so controversial?

Because he doesn't because his stripes on his shoulder are the wrong number for a captain in the

you nailed it. You nailed it. You know, your naval cereal. No, my naval cereal controversies.

Yes. There have been cap and crunch has been pictured with two bars on his sleeves, which would

make him a lieutenant. So he'd be a lanenant or something, lanenant crunch. Lutnant crunch.

Yeah. Lutnant crunch. Instead of cap and crunch. So the end thing, he's at three bars. I think

they've corrected it to four bars now. So moving on from cap and crunch, we have more to discuss.

Believe it or not, we have two delicious puzzles that we hope will give you want more

richness. That feeling of want more richness. Right. We have here. So I'm going to start with one

for Greg called unmixing the metaphors unmixing the metaphors. I came up with this puzzle while

watching a TV show starring Billy Bob Thornton as a Texas oil man. It's called Landman. Is that

it? Yeah, it's not bad. During the show one which by the way, by the way, just the site, it's

detangent. You know the name Landman. Doesn't mean a man who's in charge of the land. It's short

for land manager. Oh, interesting. It could be a man or a woman. The land manager is the landman.

Interesting. It could be a man or a woman. Yeah. All right. Good to know. So Landman is gender

neutral. During the show, one of the characters said, we are up the creek without a pickle,

up the creek without a pickle, which of course is a mix up between up the creek without a paddle.

And we are in a pickle. Yeah. And I love this type of mix up. And it actually has a name. It's

called a Malafor. A Malafor. It's like a Malafrop meets a metaphor. It's a portmanteau of Malafrop

and metaphor. Exactly. A lot of word nerdery. There are some famous Malafor, such as it's not rocket

surgery. That's a big one. Which I like that. I like that one. So for this puzzle, I'm going to give

you Greg a Malafor, a mix of two metaphors. And your job is to first unmix the metaphors,

figure out what are the two actual things that are being mixed up. Then I would like you. And this

is the real answer to present me with the mirror image of the mixed up Malafor. So what are the

other unused parts of the mix up saying? So let me give an example, but it sounds like you already

got it, but I'm going to give it anyway. That's the way the cookie bounces. So that's a mix of

that's the way the cookie crumbles and that's the way the ball bounces. Exactly. So the mirror image,

that's the way the ball crumbles. He got it. He got it. He didn't even need it. He didn't even need it.

All right. Are you ready? Oh, very. Okay. Here we go. When life gives you lemons, make a silver

lining. When life gives you lemons, make a silver lining. What about it? Should I just do the flip

or should I explain? Yeah. Well, do the flip and then you can explain. How about that? Every cloud

has lemonade. Yeah. Every cloud has a silver lining. And when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

That is exactly right. Got it. That is exactly right. You're on. All right. How about that'll happen

when pigs freeze over? Oh, that's a good one. I feel like I've heard that. Maybe I've said that.

That might be in the rocket surgery. Yeah. Yeah. It's in the rocket surgery. So it's when hell flies.

Oh, yeah. Exactly. It would be the flip when hell freezes over and when pigs fly, both,

you know, things that will never happen. Well, with CRISPR gene editing, I believe you can get

pigs to fly. Apparently, the original saying was when pigs fly backwards, like it wasn't enough

to have pigs fly. They had that right. Right. And the other one, when hell freezes over, I

looked at it and it turns out one level of Dante's hell was a frozen lake. So if Dante's right,

hell is already frozen over. Right. And stuff has gone on that we thought never would happen.

So it's all worked out. Exactly. Pigs are flying. All right. How about the sky's the oyster?

The sky's the oyster. The world's your limit. That's it. You were good at this.

The world's which which immediately sounds like the opposite. Right. That's true. In a way,

I don't know. It feels the sky's the limit, you know, unbounded possibility and the world's

your oyster unbounded possibility. What where does that come from? Apparently. Yes, I did. Of course,

that's my job. As far as we can tell, Shakespeare was the first to use it. Maybe he was the first

to write it down. Well, the world's your oyster. I mean, then it's supposed to be because you

might get a pearl in that oyster, although probably you won't. So I don't know how good a saying it

is. The world's your oyster. Or maybe you are the pearl in the world. Oh, that's a better saying.

Yeah. Everybody embrace your pearlness. Right. And the sky's the limit is apparently from poker

of vetting the no limit, no limits. The sky's the limit. All right. I got two more. I got two more.

How about when the rubber hits the fan? When the rubber hits the fan? When the **** meets the road?

Yes. Exactly. The poop. Well, I like to say when nobody exists that age. Well, actually,

apparently for the the bowedlerization of it is when the pie hits the fan or the soup hits the fan.

The soup hits the fan. Also, both of which would be quite messy. Yeah. Let's be fair. I mean,

more delicious, but certainly messier. And the rubber hits the road, which of course means like

this is when things happen. That's firestone tires is credited with that. Wow. That's some branding

right there that created a slogan that became a common phrase in the language. That's precisely.

One of my favorite lines from a Thomas Pinchon novel. Oh, yes. I mean, we weren't expecting that

today. That's amazing. Is he uses the phrase Fiko Ventilatory Collision. I don't know what that

means. That means when the **** hits the fan. Fiko Ventilatory Collision. But it's just that,

you know, it's very Pinchon-esque to make up some value-dite phrase. And it's a great contrast

because this is super elevated sounding language describing when the **** hits the fan. I like that.

That's like the there's a very high brow fart joke in Moby Dick in the first four pages.

That is, I won't even get into it. Don't spoil it. People are jumping in to get

go to Moby Dick for the fart jokes. It involves Pythagoras, a fart joke involving

Greek philosophy. All right. How about one more? What about put your nose to the wheel? Put your nose

to the wheel. Put your nose to the grindstone and put your what to the wheel? What do we say?

Put your hands to the wheel. Put your head to the wheel. Shoulder to the wheel. That's it.

In between hands. Put your shoulder to the grindstone. Put your shoulder to the grindstone.

Exactly. And people do mix this up. Sometimes they say put your shoulder to the grindstone.

But that actually is not a good idea. The grindstone, apparently that came from knife sharpening.

You want to get right in. So you want your nose near the grindstone. You don't want it on the

grindstone anymore than you want your shoulder on the grindstone. Maybe that's like an early

nose job. Right? Yeah. Reach. And off it goes. That is it. So there you go. That was

unmixing the metaphors. Well done. You are. You know, I am reminded of this little story years

ago. I had a friend from college whose father was a director, producer on one of the famous

soap operas. I can't remember which one. And I went to watch a taping. There was a studio

here in Manhattan. And I went to watch a taping. And they do this scene. This guy says to this

woman, he says, I feel like I'm being chased by a lynch mob. And Angie's the one carrying the

rope. And then they kiss. Okay. And the director, stop, stop, stop. There was two, there were two

no tongues in the kiss. He says no tongues. Stop it. That's too messy a kiss. Do it again.

They do it again. And they're there. I got a teleprompter. So the script is going by. And they

do it again. And the guy says, you know, I feel like I'm being burned at the stake. And Angie's

the one lighting the matches. And they do the kiss. And they're like, no, cut, cut, cut.

That was too sloppy. Stop using your tongue when you're kissing him. I don't know what was going

on. But they were no. So they were going into it. Methodically. Right. They did the lynch mob and

the rope. They did the burn at the stake and the matches. Next take. The guy says, you know, I

feel like I'm being burned at the stake. And Angie's the one holding the rope. And then they kiss.

And the director says, perfect. So they kept the one with the ridiculously mixed metaphor.

Interesting. That's more interesting for word nerds like us. Because maybe they were doing

a puzzle. Maybe that was the preview. No, it was just finally they didn't make the kiss too

graphic. Who cared about the script or the words? The words are secondary. It is all about the kiss.

All right. Well, we will be back. We're going to take a quick break to try to

unmix some more metaphors. Okay. And we'll be back with more puzzling.

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Hello puzzlers. Welcome back to the Hello puzzlers podcast. We just unmixed some metaphors and then mix

them up again. Yeah, we mostly mix them. Yeah, so we didn't we didn't help at all. We created chaos.

But we're not done. We have more puzzling to do because I believe Chief Puzzle Officer Greg

Poliska has one for me. I do. While you've been sitting around pouring through the origin of phrases

and I've been walking the very snowy, dirty streets of Manhattan.

Aha. Yeah, they did. It's kind of a little gross.

Now this is airing sometime in March. Hopefully by March it's all melted and spring is on the way.

But as we are recording this, there are still mounds and mounds of snow in the street.

The temperature just hasn't gotten high enough to melt all this snow.

Right. And mounds like they are. Some of them are like seven feet tall.

Yes, yeah, yeah. And they're dirty in this.

But because of this, I've learned some new words.

Oh, terrific.

And I'm going to quiz you guys. We can bring Andrea in for this one too.

Oh, yeah. I need her.

The first phrase that I learned, I was actually in a New York Times article, is desire path.

Desire path.

Desire path.

And my question for you is a desire path, a flow chart used by urban planners to analyze projected user

behavior. Or is it an unplanned pathway formed by human or animal traffic?

Wow. All right. That's tricky. I wouldn't have thought either.

Desire path. I don't know. I'm going to go with the flow chart just because it sounds fancy

and scientific. And yeah, that may be true. Do you want to?

I'll say the unplanned pathway. Well, Andrea would be right.

Damn.

And it's because you can see them in the street now, right?

They've they they always carve out pads on the street corners.

But humans make other pathways where we want to go.

So like in the middle of my block, I'm right across from whole foods.

And right in front of whole foods, people have tried enough to jaywalk that there is now a path

through the snowmounds that we can do. And they're they're all over the city.

Next time you go out, you'll see, oh, people have cut through here.

And enough people want to do it that it creates a desire path.

You also see them on college campuses or other big green spaces.

But particularly like on the quad at a college,

there will be paved pathways cutting across the quad.

But the students will find a new path that is the best one they like and take that one.

Yeah, well, they also have different incentives.

Like they they want to make it pretty to look at and we just want to get there.

Right, right. And sometimes they will then pave the path that is the desire path.

Oh, and influence it. Nice.

Well, that's the best use of this.

We are you recognize humans want to go this way.

Why don't we make that possible?

Because that is the power to the people.

Exactly. Exactly.

So anyway, that was in the Times article.

It led me into a little deep dive of other city planning terms.

So here's your next one.

This is snack down.

SNECKDOWN.

Snack down.

SNECK.

So not snack down.

Nope, snack down.

Okay.

Snack down.

Is it A when snow builds up in the road but has not been flattened by traffic?

It's a portmanteau of snow and neck down.

Or is it the Dutch word for the flattening of snow into ice due to pedestrian traffic?

Mm-hmm.

Andrea, what do you got?

I think it's the portmanteau and not a Dutch word.

Yeah, I do too.

But I'm just going to go just so we always get one right.

I'm going to go with the Dutch word.

Well, well done.

I appreciate your egalitarianism.

Andrea is correct again.

Fair enough.

It's a team effort.

It's a team effort.

Well, yeah.

That's why I jumped on the grenade.

Yeah.

Yep, down the grenade.

Well, urban planners actually use this as a way of analyzing how they might expand a curb, right?

If there's snow on the ground and you can see where traffic goes

and where it doesn't, where the snow remains,

they can look at that and say, hey, we ought to expand the pedestrian area that far out

because the cars aren't using this area.

Uh-huh.

That makes sense?

Yeah.

Yeah.

A neck down is actually an expanded curb.

So a neck down is a expanded curb due to snow.

Ah, very good.

Very good.

How about chicane, CHI, C-A-N-E, chicane?

It's either A from a French word that means raise issues with minor points of law

in order to complicate a judicial suit and is the term for the raised dots in a row

that warn you of an upcoming intersection or hazard.

Okay.

Interesting.

Is a chicane, a serpentine curve in a road added by design rather than geography that's used

to slow down vehicle traffic?

Ah, I'm going to go with that one because I couldn't figure out the first one.

That's a good move.

I kind of got lost.

I got lost in the serpentine language.

Little dots in a row that warn you of an upcoming intersection.

Oh, right.

Those little, okay, I got it.

Well, I'm still going with the serpentine.

You don't like the French word, meaning to raise issues with minor points of law

in order to complicate a judicial suit?

I do.

I do.

I appreciate it.

As aesthetically, I appreciate it.

To me, this sounds like it has the same route as chicaneery,

which I think is French.

So I'll go with, I'll go with the French.

Well, once again, as a team, you've gotten it right.

But AJ picked the right one this time.

But it's a tricky clue because, in fact, Andrea, you're right.

It comes from the same route as chicaneery,

which does come from a French word,

meaning to raise issues with minor points of law

in order to complicate a judicial suit?

Interesting.

Because I also, chicaneery was more like trickery and deceit.

Yes.

It is trickery and deceit,

but it comes from this word meaning to create obstacles

to, you know, distract.

And it is a curve.

You will see this occasionally where a, you know,

a city planner puts a curve in a road

just to make sure traffic has to slow down.

Interesting.

How about this one?

Vonairf.

Vonairf.

That's spelled W-O-O-N-E-R-F.

W-O-O-N-E-R-F.

Okay.

Don't, yes, Vonairf.

Not Woonairf.

Not Woonairf.

It looks like Woonairf, but it's pronounced Vonairf.

Because A, it's a Dutch word, meaning living street.

And is an area where motorists and other users

share the street without boundaries like lanes and curbs.

Or is it, or is it on a steep downhill,

the usually gravel-lined turnout

in which runaway trucks can slow down safely?

Oh, I like those, yeah.

From the Dutch word for soft landing.

Oh, interesting.

I'm going to go with the first one.

Living street.

Dip in the street.

Partly because I feel

nerf, you saw nerf and you were like,

ah, let's do something soft, soft landing.

Oh, see here trying to get something like that.

I am.

That's what I'm trying to do.

But I might have expected you to do that.

Ah, yeah, I know.

I could be a double twist, double twist.

All right, but anyway, I choose one.

I'll do it too.

We're doing it.

Yeah, well, it's one.

It's one.

It's one.

It's living street.

Taking the grenade, it's fine.

This is a concept that originated,

I think, in the Netherlands and in Scandinavia,

if you reduce the definition of pedestrian

and vehicular areas,

if you get rid of curbs and signage and lines,

it's actually safer.

Interesting.

Drivers become more alert because they don't have signs and lights

and curbs telling them where to go.

They become more alert and they're less likely to hit pedestrians.

Interesting.

I wonder if that holds up empirically

because I remember visiting Italy and I,

we were walking through Oplaza

and there were cars just like plowing through

with no, like, you were jumping out of the way,

like Frogger to get out of the way.

And there was...

Look, the data says it actually is true.

All right.

But that's maybe that's just the difference

between the Netherlands and Italy.

All right, we've got a few more.

How about sleeping policemen?

Sleeping policemen.

Is that a British term for a speed bump?

Or an Australian term for a speed trap?

Oh, interesting.

I like the first one because I'm,

it's very visual.

A policeman is on the road, he's taking a nap

and you've got to go over him.

What about you?

What do you think?

I, I guess I'll go with speed trap.

All right.

Well, more of a speed bump.

It's the speed bump.

Okay.

I took the good one.

I took the good one.

I'm sure you'll go first next time.

All right, we have time for one more.

Sure.

Sure.

Goomba.

Interesting.

Goomba.

All right.

What do we got?

Is it a pejorative term

for any obstructive neighborhood group?

Okay.

Coming from, coming from the Italian-American slang

for, you know, part of the gang?

Or is it a spin-off of Nimbi,

not in my backyard,

which stands for Get Out of My Business Area?

I like that.

Goomba.

Well, knowing you, Greg,

and that you are as sensitive

as man and do not want to offend any ethnic groups,

including your own,

or half of your own, your half of the Italian.

Yeah, half of the Italian.

I'm going to go with the,

with the Get Out of My Business Area,

which I also like.

It makes me laugh.

Yeah.

I'll, I'll say, I,

so say,

it has to say,

but it's a very, very, very structured neighborhood.

Exactly.

Well, it's, it's a term used by,

it's, you know, it's accepted and not can be.

Yeah, it's used by the Italian-American,

say, Minerate,

Sarcumba,

but it's become to mean any obstructive neighborhood group,

but that's not true.

It is, in fact,

to spin off of Nimbi,

get out of my business area.

Goomba.

Goomba, I like that.

I like it a lot.

All right, well,

we want you to stay in our business area.

How's that?

How's that for an ending transition?

Well, segue.

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