What are Washboard Weepers?

0:00Hello, puzzlers. I thought today we could start with a quick introductory puzzle. We are in the middle of the month of September, the ninth month of the year, even though September means seven, and November actually means nine. But let's not get into that right now. September is the ninth month of the year, and in honor of that, we have a puzzle from senior puzzler, Andrea Schoenberg. She points out the word nine is pronounced with a long i. So nine rhymes with fine and divine. But that is not the only way you can pronounce i and e at the end of a word. In fact, there are several ways of pronouncing i and e. So I would like to know what are some of those words. And I'll give a couple of hints. One of the non long i i and e is a word that comes before mystique or wiles. It occasionally comes before mystique or wiles. Another of the odd i and e is a synonym for the first and a half floor. At least that's the way I think of it.

1:11The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break. Hello puzzlers. Welcome back to the hello puzzlers podcast. The spacious frunk in your puzzle electric vehicle. I am your. The frunk of that trunk in the front. The front trunk. It's a portman to. Nice very nice. I have a photo of my kids in Andreia's dad's frunk, but it's open. We didn't close it. Just want to make that clear. You could have. Yes, I'm your host, Adi Jacobs. I'm here, of course with chief puzzle officer Greg Pliska and senior puzzler Andrea Schoenberg. Before the break we ask about i rhymes that end with the letters i and e. So we have nine, of course, sounds like I'm but there are many other ways to announce those letters i and e at the ends of words. One clue was this is a word that sometimes comes before mystique or wiles.

2:21That would be feminine. And I'm an in feminine and that's the full n i n e by the way. As does this synonym for the first and half floor. Yeah, yeah. The first one I wrote down with this pronunciation was magazine, but you're thinking of mezzanine, which uses the same n i n e. Right. Like the name Janine might vaccine vaccine and favor of only favor here at the puzzler at the hello puzzlers podcast. Right. Are there any I was trying to think of ones that had like the like a French in a like i and e. I don't want to know or grata. But those have two ease. C.N.A. is a terrible. Yes movies not very often. You see that very speaking of friends. Or a lot right the C.N.A. or the same. The city is sometimes pronounced yes, the same. And then there is a state of the United States.

3:28Yeah, exactly main. Oh nice. It's kind of silent or just becomes a part of the other vowel sound. That's cool. There you go. Thank you. And speaking of timely we have two puzzles. Both of them I would say are timely, but Greg's is even more timely. So why don't we start with yours Greg. Of course, well, it's timely because you know I always look on the internet for what is celebrated on a given day. And of course there's all kinds of wacky things out there, so which may be real, some of which may not be real for every day of the year. And the 16th of September happens to be collect rocks day. All right. Happy collect rocks day to everybody. I don't think I'll celebrate. I'll just observe. I will participate. I don't know where this holiday came from. It's not really clear who made it up or why or how standardize it is. But here at the puzzle lab, we see a thing like collect rocks and we think of the word play version of that. Which in this case is inserting the word or ORE into another word to make it work.

4:35Oh, I like it. All right. I'm going through some ores in my mind. It's inserted in the middle. So it's tricky. It doesn't go at the beginning or the end. It goes right in the middle. You have to collect it out of the middle or it's not collected and stuff it in the middle is how I was thinking of it. You got a word and then you collect a rock and you put it in the middle. So here's your example. This is probably one of the harder ones, but I'm using it. That's why I'm using it as the example. Thank you. A boat painted with artwork of the kinks, the who and other blank bands from London was blank next to mine at the marina. So I think I got something. You got something. What do you think about it? I'm a hard board makes me think. Oh, interesting. It doesn't really let yourself to hard rock and hard board. Yeah, no, we look for the word more. More of the mods. The mods bands from London like the kinks, the who and other bands and it's more next to yours.

5:37Alright, I'm glad that was an example. I'm speaking of which I'm going to bring in senior puzzler. I'm sure I'm a showman to collect rocks with me. I will tell you that the first blank is always the shorter word and the second blank is the longer word with the or stuck inside of it. Okay, great. And you can as always, you can work either direction. You can get the first blank and add the or or get the second blank and subtract the or. Alright, here we go. I tried to be blank by sneaking around the house, but all that crouching has me moving very blank this morning. Oh, interesting. Okay, I think the second. Yeah, I think the second word is going to be sorely. So if you take out the or you get. I tried to be fly by sneaking around the house, but you are very fly as a puzzle maker. Thank you. Thank you. Unfortunately, that doesn't cause the same kind of soreness that crouching around the house.

6:38Rain soreness. Alright, yeah, about this one, a website filled with pop up blank is not one that anyone blank. Hmm. Well, pop up ads is what occurs to me. Then ads adores ads adores. I don't want to do all those pop up ads. No, sir. Alright, working all day, feeding animals on the blank results in a tan on your blank, but not on your shoulders or back. I like that one. Andreia any thoughts? The farmer's tan is on you. Okay, yeah, working on the farm. So you get a tan on your forearm on your forearm. Exactly. I like that one. Very clever. As always, these are all true, too. There's no. It's very true. That's a fact. That's the farmer's tan. Right? Yeah. In our blank capitalist dystopia, the richest.

7:40That's the rich or realizing. Yeah, yeah, a little bit. Editorial in our blank capitalist dystopia, the richest get richer and leave the blank behind. Hmm. The poor. Right. The well, richest get richer and the poorest. The poorest. Poorest behind. So take out O-O-R-E and you get post. Yes. In our post capitalist dystopia, the richest get richer and leave the poorest behind. All right. Math professors and other experts like blank are very familiar with Firmats last blank. Okay, that's going to be theorem. I just have to. I feel like it's harder to work backwards actually, but I always get the second word first. Yeah. Okay. So take it out O-R-E, you get T-H-E-Th-M. Yes. Math professors and other experts like them are very familiar with Firmats last theorem.

8:43Them and the Rome. Yes. The bell weather of my blank has a cute little blank of wool on his head. I like that one. All right. I think I know it. The bell weather of your flock has a cute little four lock on it. Yes. Very good. Because bell weather, the literal meaning of bell weather is the lead goat or sheep in a flock. By the way, fun fact. I don't know if we discussed it. Do we discuss where the word bell weather comes from? Because they used to wear a bell and weather means a sheep or goat that has been castrated. Yes. So we put the castrated one right up front. Because it could be relied. It wouldn't be distracted. Yeah. All right. In Italy, the blank for the men's rooms might say blank on them. Okay. But the signs and signores.

9:44Signores. Multabana Andrea. Very well done. Yeah. And that might be true. All right. Your last one. Your last one. The ore is not going to go in the middle. You're going to have to stick it at the end. Oh. Are people very pretentious and blank? Dida in blank the second largest city in Pakistan? Just a question. Well, I think I know it. So wait, la Dida. Yeah. Right. And la Hora. La Hora. Yes. La Hora. Second largest city in Pakistan. And you have to spell la Dida with the H. L. A. H. D. A. H. It's acceptable either way according to the dictionary. So they are. What a lovely way to celebrate rock collecting day without actually having to collect rocks. I would also add if you're out there, you have a day of the year coming up that you think we should celebrate in some fun word play way.

10:45Let us know. Read out. Tell us. Tell us your day. On patreon.com slash hello puzzlers or Instagram at hello puzzlers or email us. Hello puzzlers. Pot at gmail.com. Very good. Let us know. All right. We'll puzzle your day. All right. Rock collectors and metaphorical rock collectors. We'll be back in just a moment with another puzzle. I love doing this podcast, but keeping track of hundreds of puzzles. It's a huge challenge for someone who's not super organized. The good news is I have started using this all in one workspace called notion. And it has allowed me to set up these interconnected pages for all of my work projects, books, essays, social media and of course puzzles. But it's not just for my work. It helps me organize and manage my personal to do lists, my life goals. And I'm not alone. It's a super popular platform, a hundred million users.

11:48And it's also powerful because it lets me collaborate with colleagues and friends. Teams using notion, move faster, cut friction and cost by consolidating tools and stay aligned. It's an AI workspace where your teams, knowledge, projects and agents all come together in one place. Learn more about how notion can support your business at notion.com slash Hello puzzlers. That's all lowercase letters notion.com slash Hello puzzlers to try notion today. And when you use our link, you're supporting our show. So thank you. Our podcast Hello puzzlers does not have an official uniform, but we sort of do because Greg and I are both huge fans of the clothes from Quince. As is my wife. In fact, every year for the last several years, Julie has gifted me and our sons a bunch of Quince clothing. Sweaters, Geno's T-shirts, long sleeve shirts. I've got my favorite pieces I keep returning to including a fitted blue T-shirt that Julie lets me wear even to nice restaurants.

12:57Quince makes it easy to choose your outfit. It's all about fewer, better pieces. Their clothes are made with premium materials, so they're built to last. And what I love is that Quince has priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middleman. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com slash Hello puzzlers. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's q-u-i-n-c-e.com slash Hello puzzlers. Hello puzzlers. Welcome back to the Hello puzzlers podcast. We have our second and final puzzle for you today. And it is called Washboard Weepers. Oh my god.

13:58Do you know what a Washboard Weeper is? That sounds very sad. A Washboard Weeper is not a term I think I've ever heard in my life. It could be someone who has to do the washing and is very unhappy about it. Or it could be the puddle that's left on the ground after you dry your washing on the washboard. It could be but it's neither. It is a soap opera. It is another name for radio serial dramas in the 1940s, slightly sexist name. And it's actually not quite clear whether they meant because women were supposed to listen to these soap operas while doing the laundry or because they were often sponsored by Colgate Palm Olive and companies like that that made soap for your Washboard. Yeah. But I love Washboard Weepers. I read it in an old newspaper, one of my hobbies reading old newspapers. And it made me realize that for every modern word and phrase, there were a bunch of competing terms for the same phenomenon.

15:09And we just take it for granted the one that won out the soap opera. I see very right. They evolved the Washboard Weepers. Yes. In an alternate universe soap operas would be called Washboard Weepers. And this puzzle is all about honoring some of the other losers in the linguistic battle. The almost was is the near misses. Love honoring the losers over here. Oh, God, I'm on the losers. So I'm going to give you a term and then you tell me what you think it is. If it's really hard, I'll give you some multiple choice questions. So here we go. What did the term hot music lose out to hot music? Do you have any guesses or do you want options? Oh, I definitely have guesses, right? Andrea must be guesses. I mean, any genre. I mean, it could be right. It's a jazz rocket seems like rocket. It is rock collecting day. It is rock collecting it. But I don't try to mislead us with that.

16:10You said it was you said it right. It was jazz. I'm just going to cut it off there. Jazz hot music. That's what it was called hot music. And it lost out to jazz. What about what term do we use now for actuality film? What's an actuality film? What a boring term that is so well now. Maybe that's why it kind of lost out actual actuality film. That wouldn't necessarily we call them documentaries now. That's it. The documentary. But I thought it could be news. It could be news. News real. News real could be I think this is remind me to the fun thing that we called silent films of course weren't called that until the advent of talkies. Right. Right. What's that? Retro nymph? Retro nymph? Retro nymph was a little of that. By the way, highly recommend the actuality film employees leaving the Lumiere factory. Have you seen it on you can check it out on YouTube? one of the earliest films ever made by.

17:11It is one of the earliest, and it's a bunch of people walking out a door. It's pretty awesome. But actually it is kind of awesome because the outfits are fantastic. Like the hats that the women wear. Pretty cool. All right, what about Muggles before Harry Potter? There was another meaning of Muggles in the 1920s. And I actually didn't even come up with options for that. So I'm going to leave you at sea. I mean, Andre, do you think it has anything to do with its meaning in the Potter universe? It does not. I'm just going to give you that. Okay. Good. I'll just keep asking Andre questions and then you answer them as clues. So do we get put it off something to do with food? Andre, I don't know. Greg doesn't have something to do with with with Muggs with Muggs. I mean, right. If you're not something to do with the mother's thing, it does not. I'm saying, I'm sorry, four on Dre. There was a, here's a, there was a hot music song, meaning a jazz song called Muggles by Louis Armstrong,

18:17who was a fan of this. She'd call it a substance. A substance. Oh, was he smoking Muggles back then? What's going on here? He was smoking Muggles. He was smoking Muggles. So that was the term that we could have lived in a universe where, yes, there were Muggles stores. Well, we talking about marijuana here. What are we talking about? Marijuana. That's right. Marijuana. I mean, there are a lot of terms that have fallen out of favor for marijuana. One, I love his tea in the 60s. It was tea. And you might hear it in West Side Story, the awesome song, Officer Crop-D, one of my favorites, which has the lyrics. My father is a bastard. My ma's and SOB. My grandpa's always plastered. My grandma pushes tea. So she's a great letter. Great, letter. Yeah. Great, letter. All right, we got a couple more. We got, what is the current term for friction lights? Friction lights.

19:17Friction lights. The current term for friction lights is birthday candles. No. I don't like that. I don't like that. I mean, stop lights. Right. That's a great one. It's on a corner. Kind of a synonym. No. I'll give you three options. Strobe light, flashlight, matches. Oh. Oh, well, yeah, matches are the one that makes sense. Matches. Red, exact. That was these matches. I mean, that's a good question. Well, they were invented in the 1820s. And that was the original name, friction lights. So Lucifer's, that was enough for them. Yes, I like that. That is a good one. That was sort of a, a trade name, a product name, like Kleenex. All right, I got a couple more. We got the revival of learning. I'm not going to give any clues because I feel that that might be self-explanatory.

20:21But capital R, capital L, the revival of learning. Is this the Renaissance? It is the Renaissance. Look at that. I read that in Moby Dick. That's what they called it. They didn't do a lot of work. You're not going to go with the Frenchified Renaissance. Three births. How about phosphate? Do you know what a phosphate could have been? I mean, it's still a thing, phosphates. There are things that are in whatever soap or detergent or something. You have phosphates in your water. True. And in fact, that is, that is related to this very popular. It was something you might have. It was a phosphate. It was a soda. That's what they called sodas. You would go to the soda shop and have a strawberry phosphate or a Loganberry phosphate. Loganberries were big. And it wasn't quite all sodas. It was more like they would use a juice and phosphate soda.

21:25But it could have stuck because Coca-Cola and all those kinds of colas do use phosphate. They do use it. They're actually a part of phosphates are in many sodas. But it sort of dropped out and was replaced by Coke or soda or what are the other? Pop. Pop. Exactly. Tonic. Tonic. Tonic. It's one of the great geographical, you know, definers. If you say soda or pop or tonic, it tells us where you're from or come. Interesting. All right, let's end with what is an A term for the internet that could have taken off, but did not. This is an early term that was competing with the term internet. And I'm not talking cyberspace or wide web. I'm talking about one of these three. Was it Gores Folly? Gores Folly? That was not, that was something else. It is Vincnet, Legnet or Kate Net.

22:32Vincnet, Legnet or Kate Net. Which one of those is an early term for the internet? You pick one and I pick one and I at least that gives us 666. I'm going to take a Legnet. Okay. I'll go with what was the last one, Kate Net. Sure. She got it. Kate Net, because they... I knew at the whole time I didn't have to guess. Yeah, no guessing here. It was a 1973 term, coined by a French computer scientist, derived from the word catanated, linked in a series. So all of those meant linked, Leg, Legature, Vinc, like a Vinculum, sort of a set. Did you make those up all of yourself? This is great. All by myself. Thank you. I love it. They're all related and therefore very hard to guess. There you go. I wanted to end on a challenge. So there you have it. Thank you for that. But you know what? You can go on the Kate Net and find more puzzles, right?

23:35Is it Kate Net or Catanet then? That's a good question. They didn't have a lot of change. I think Catanet. Yeah. I think if you would give us the right pronunciation, I would have gotten that. Of course. No doubt. Or you can go on the Catanet or Kate Net. Go to patreon.com slash. Hello, puzzlers. And we have a lovely community that we love hanging out with doing puzzle nights with. And there's an ad-free version and all sorts of other good stuff. So join us. There's free level. There's the page level. And all three of us are hanging out there pretty much 24 or 7. Maybe not 24 or 7. But we do. We do. We're on the interactive. Well, thank you, Greg. And thank you, Andrea. And happy rock collecting day to all the listeners. And of course, we will be back soon with more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.