Downbeat Updates and Blasphemes

0:00Hello, puzzlers! What if we started with a quick introductory puzzle? Today's puzzle is a geography puzzle, since I know Greg loves them. I actually saw this question on a geography site that pops up on my Facebook feed for reasons unknown. I'm going to give two versions of it. One is the hard mode and then the one is the still hard but slightly less hard mode. Let's do the capital cities of Argentina, Haiti and Sri Lanka have in common that is not true of any other country's capital city. What do the capital cities of Argentina, Haiti and Sri Lanka have in common that is not true of any other capital city? That's the super hard mode. Skip over 30 seconds if you don't want the slightly less hard. I got it. I know the answer. You skip over this. So, saying that before you've gone to the... Alright, skip. Press the button. What do these three capital cities have in common that is not true of any other capital cities?

1:00Buenos Aires from Argentina, Porto Aprints of Haiti and I'm going to give it a shot. But Sri, Jaya, Where, Den, A, Poor, Cote. That is Sri Lanka. Beautifully done. Thank you, I guess. Maybe not. The answer is more puzzling goodness after the break. Hello, folks. Welcome back to the Hello Puzzlers Podcast, the President Aaron Burr in your counterfactual historical novel. I am your host, AJ Jacobs and I am here, of course, with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Bliska and Super Producer and a new house and Andrea Schoenberg, Senior Puzzler. Greg or anyone else before the break, we asked, what do these three world capitals have in common that is true of no other country's capital and those are Buenos Aires from Argentina,

2:01Porto Aprints in Haiti and Sri, Jaya, Where, Den, A, Poor, Cote from Sri Lanka. What do you got? Worth noting that that, the capital of Sri Lanka used to be Columbo. It might still be... Well, that's two capitals that is true. And the hint is that Columbo does not work. Columbo definitely... Definitely. ...the opposite property. ...as the opposite thing going on. Yeah. What is that property? They are super-vocalic. They contain each of the five primary English vowels. That is correct. As the word super-vocalic, of course. Very good. Yeah. Meaning like Buenos Aires has an A, an I, an E, an O, and the U. And no Y. And as to the others. I'm not going to spell the Sri one because we... It does have a Y in it though, doesn't it? Sri Jaya has a Y. Yeah, it's got a Y. So it's a... It's a... It's a super-vocalic E, we would say.

3:03As you mentioned, Sri Lanka has two capitals and appropriately, we have two puzzles. How's that? And two additional puzzlers. And we've got two puzzlers. We've got three puzzlers total. The first puzzle is from me and it is called... It goes both ways. That is the name of the puzzle. And I am proud to say it was inspired by my dad. Hello, dad. I love you. Oh, yeah. A couple of weeks ago... I love you, man. He's great. My dad, a couple of weeks ago, was sending out an email with some sad news. And he was considering making the subject line downbeat update. Downbeat update because he liked the opposite direction in those two words. In the end, he decided not to use that subject line. But I liked the phrase downbeat update so much that it inspired a puzzle. And it's called... It goes both ways because every answer will be a pair of words, two words, like downbeat

4:09update in which the two words start with opposite directions, opposite directional terms. And these are fictional phrases. They are not things you would come across in common language. I will give the first one as a semi-example, but maybe not even because you're all expert puzzlers. Here is the semi-example, an extremely happy dark horse. An extremely happy dark horse might be called a... Oh, maybe it's harder than I thought. We have to have directional words in them. Right. Okay. Upbeat. Or upset. They're not all up or down. They are all very different. They just have to be something in terms of space. They have to be space or... The dark horse is a long shot. Yeah, one other word for it. Underdog.

5:09Underdog. Underdog. Adam. Overjoyed underdog. Overjoyed underdog. There it is. Love it. All right. There aren't that many. So we're going to cruise through them. Bright yellow pen for Philistines. A bright yellow pen for Philistines. Anyone? I know what the bright yellow pen is. I think. Please share. Highlighter? Yes. Highlighter. Okay. So the other one is going to have what word at the beginning? Low brow. A low brow highlighter. Low brow highlighter. Yes. A super ethical day old food. Some super ethical day old food. Maybe it's vegan. I don't know what it is. I was thinking upstanding at first, but then day old food is leftovers. Right. Correct. Right. I'll just accept it. Right just leftovers or right thinking leftovers.

6:12Now about the last sip of someone else's beer in the Wild West. The last sip of someone else's beer. The backwash forward something. No. It's not backwash. Well, backwash is correct. You're halfway there. It is. Oh, that's gross. It's funny. So is it. Front, front, western front. Like a front here. Front here. Front here. Front here. Backwash. Exactly. There probably was a lot of that though back in the day. Yeah. Listen, I'm just reflecting reality. I'm not trying to comment on it. No, it's educational. Yeah. How about a crazy pariah? A crazy pariah. Is the word outcast. Yes. Well done. Adam. Oh, Adam. Come on, it's wrong. Insane outcast. Insane outcast. Insane outcast. I mean, we got a lot of great ideas for YouTube videos.

7:14I'm here to help. Passionate kissing and cuddling at around 2 p.m. All in favor, afternoon delight. Afternoon. Afternoon. Afternoon is right. Afternoon is right. Afternoon is right. Afternoon is right. So, well, it's not a play. Four play. Afternoon. Afternoon. Afternoon. Afternoon. Afternoon. And four. Four and aft. Not. Thank you for clarifying. This last one is admittedly absurd, but I couldn't resist. I like the others. This is a person who rejects the traditional dogma about how to play a hands-free electric musical instrument from Russia. So, this person. I got it. I got it. That's it. I thought it might. I got it. Like in one or another. They're deep-cut, you know, I know with the hands free electrical instrument from, made by the Russian inventor is. Which isS. He invented a lot of wild things.

8:16Leon Theramin, the inventor of the Theramin, which is the thing, where I get it. But, exactly Bob. The way being in proximity to the various parts of it. It's got that whew, whew, you've heard it on Typhoon- Good vibrations. Good vibrations to be flourished. I remember that. I think it is. I think it is. The demonstration was clear enough. Thank you, Andre. I appreciate it. I think it was your spot on. So that's there. Right. There is in that. And the first, the other part is the heretic. It's a Theraman heretic. Exactly. A Theraman heretic, something we all come across. It's not a fanatic as much of this is, you know, orthographic. It's the spelling. And by the way, my father had a good alternate answer. And that answer was here a quack, there a quack. I think that's where it is. When in doubt, say that. Yeah. Well, thank you, dad, for the inspiration and well done to the puzzler team for working it out. We will be back with more Theraman based puzzles.

9:20I'm assuming. I haven't seen your puzzle Greg, but I'm assuming it's probably a Theraman while I give the puzzle. All right. Good. And I guess that come on back. Hello, puzzlers. Welcome back to the Hello Puzzlers podcast. We are now approaching the second of two puzzles. And this one will be delivered by Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Kliska Craig. What do you have for us? Well, first I have to apologize for not actually playing the Theraman. I'm not going to go alone. What's called a Thera Mini made by Mugh. It's like a mini version. The original Thera Man is a big boxy thing and a very official professional thing. They make a sort of knockoff version that I own, but it's not in my apartment right now. So I can't play it for you. I did a little research today. September 30th is International Blasphemy Day. Oh, okay.

10:20Wow. So me, of course, is showing disrespect, challenging or criticizing religion. And an organization called the Center for Inquiry started this in 2009. It's a nonprofit dedicated to freedom of expression. So it established this holiday to celebrate our right to what should be an international right to criticize religion. There you go. To challenge. You can do it in this country. You should be able to do it in every country. In my book, the Constitution, as we need to plug that, of course. Yes, the in New York State at the beginning of our country, you were fine. 37.5 cents for every blaspheme for every time you said, damn, or any other oath. So we should be very grateful that we are not losing 37.5 cents every time we say, damn. No, no. I said, I think we were. You were looking at the book the year of living biblically, you sort of illuminated something about religion. So there's like a double book plug here.

11:20There you go. Thank you. Appreciate it. So what's the puzzle? Is it all blaspheme? So I shouldn't get it. Well, no. What I've done with this puzzle, I've decided to take various deities. Most of them, in fact, many of them, Greek and Roman mythological deities. But other myth, I mean, deities, one might argue are all mythological. Taking the name of deity and mashed it up with something else. Okay. And I'll give you a clue to the mashed up thing. So for example, I might say clumsy like a Roman seagod. And that would be in Neptune. Oh. Inept matched up with Neptune. Okay. Ineptune. All right. Blasphemous. That is. Very blasphemous. You are going to Hades right now. Here's your first one. This is a machine used to determine if the Greek goddess of sexual love and beauty is lying.

12:20They... Okay. Polygraph Bodidy. Polygraph Bodidy. Yes. How about this? This is the God of War who comes to take your kids in size. Oh, interesting. Well, I thought one God of War is Mars, but I'm in trouble again. It's not that one. It's the other one. Oh, I think I got it. I think I got it. Because there's aries. Yeah. Right. So tooth fairies. Yep. Two fairies. The tooth fairy. That's scary. The tooth fairy. I mean, the tooth fairy is scary enough as it is. Yeah. And then you add an aries. It's terrifying. We got the God of War coming to do it. How about... This is what happens when the credentials of the Greek God of the sea are stolen online and used to impersonate him. Interesting. Very heavily...very Greek bias. Oh, that's so hard. Very hard, right? Well, yeah, I've kind of put all the Greeks in one slot and the others and the other one.

13:23You know, just the way it worked out. There better be a lot of toll tech gods coming up where else I'm going to be offended. Well, the Greek God is Poseidon. I just don't know the first person. The first person. The first person. The seller, the other part. When you steal someone's credentials and impersonate them, that's known as...it's a two-word phrase for that. Identity fraud. Yeah. Poseidon. No, no. Put the God first. Oh, put the God first. Oh. Poseidon. Did he fraud? Poseidon. Identity theft. Poseidon. That's good one. Greg. I'm saying. Okay. Thank you. This is a slang term. I'm going to go a little NSFW here. Slang term for the testicles of the Greek God of the underworld. Interesting. All right. The Greek God of the underworld. That's Hades. That's Hades. Yep. Oh. What is the two-word thing? I think I know.

14:23Yes. Hades. I think Hades not so boy. Totally God. He totally got us. He totally got us. He totally got us. He loves it. No, keep it in. Keep it in. I mean, it was. Hades not so. Yeah. Come on. That's great. All right. How about the Carnival ride that lifts its riders in a big circle as high as the God of the Sun? Okay. It could be...so Ferrispeel. Mm-hmm. Okay. The God of the Sun. Well, there's Apollo, there's the Greek, and who is? It's not going to be... Actually... Well, there's Helios. Yeah. There is. So, mash that up with Ferris wheel. Ferris Helios. Oh, because Ferris Wheelios. Yeah, there is an H there. There is an H there. Oh, I see. You're right. All right. Interesting. Ferris Wheelios. All right. You want some Romans? I'll give you some Romans. This is rearranging the letters in the name of the Roman goddess of the hunt.

15:27All right. Well, rearranging the letters. The goddess of the hunt, I thought it was Diana. But maybe I'm Roman. Diana, yeah. Oh, I see. Diana. I got it. I got it. All right. The Roman messenger god after he was captured by the man in the yellow hat. I like that one. I think that would be a good mashup. I would watch that. Mercurius George. Mercurius George. Mercurius George. Mercurius George. Mercurius George. How about the candy bites that combine chocolate, peanut butter and the harvest goddess? Andre looks like she's nodding. I can't remember who. Not well. I'm thinking of how is it Reese's peace series? Peace. Peace. I see another way. A series of pieces. A series of pieces. A series of pieces. A series of pieces. A series of pieces. Yeah. I'm going to shut up.

16:27All right. I've got some Hindu gods for you. Great. This is the Hindu god who preserves the garden state. Zach Prath. New Jersey. Zach Prath. New Jersey. Zach Prath. Really. Vishnu Jersey. Vishnu Jersey. Exactly. Vishnu is the preserver. We're going to do all three of the Hindu triumvirate, the tri-murthy, the three main gods. This is an Irish spirit whose whales signify the approach of the Hindu god of destruction. Well, Shiva, I believe, is the Hindu god of destruction. But I don't know. Yeah. I was thinking leprechaun, but that doesn't work. Leprechaun. Wow. It's a whale. Have you heard of leprechaun's screech? No. No. Banshiva. Banshiva. Banshiva. Banshiva. Banshiva. Nice. And your last Hindu one, active wear for women who create the Hindu universe.

17:28So it's the creator deity. I don't think I know the creator. Shockty. Shockty, right? Is that it? Nope. It's not shockedy. Nope. Activewear. So are those like Vishnu Shiva and the third one. I can't remember. And what's active wear for women? There's yoga pants. Generally. There's a pleasure. There's lulu lemon. Sports bra. Oh, yeah. Adam and good. Yep. Mashed up with the god. Sports brahman. Who have he sports brahman? Sports brahman. Brahma is the god. Brahmins is the cast. Sports brahman. He's nuts. Perfect. Great. You guys got them all. We did like 12 of them. We have blasphemed successfully. No toll tech gods for you, AJ. All right. Well, maybe next time. Well, thank you for that. And happy blasphemous day to those who celebrate. And thank you all for listening.

18:29Oh, but listen. If you want more puzzles, we are there to help. We really are. What do we have, Adam? Where could we find them? I mean, you got to start with Patreon. You got to go into our Patreon community. You got to be fun with VIP puzzler. And it just gets you a community, gets you more puzzles, it gets you access to game nights. It's truly the level up for the Hello Puzzlers community. And then don't we have a card game? Don't we have some? Yes, we do. Of course. It's the fall of earbuss right now. And we created our first physical card game, which is a banger, as the kids would say. And it is great for all ages and all family functions in this fall season. It's called earbuss. And you can buy it at yourbussgame.com and anywhere you search out your... Yes, there you go. ...shipping soon, if not already. Not already. Well, thank you, Adam.

19:29Thank you, Greg and Andrea. And of course, thank you to listeners. And we will see you in a couple of days for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly. And we will see you in a couple of days for more puzzling puzzles.