Ouerdplait

It's three years late and shorter than usual... but at long last, here's the PENULTIMATE EPISODE of Ouerdplait! Our crop of contestants, all winners from previous shows, makes this episode a tournament of champions! Who will reign supreme? There's only one way to find out, so give it a listen NOW! (I mean, sure, you COULD just skip to the end, but then you'd miss all the puzzles.) I) Rule of Threes, Part Two II) The Shape of Things III) Spun with Foonerisms IV) First Things First: Ouelcome Back Find more Ouerdplait puzzles at http://ouerdplait.tumblr.com. Featuring music by Mark Sparling and Landon Beall. Subscribe to the show via iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ouerdplait/id997648102 Subscribe via RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ouerdplait

It's not a drill, and it's not a mistake: it's a new Ouerdplait Mini! I'm sure I've mentioned this on a previous show, but my favorite holiday by far is Halloween, and now that it's finally October, it seemed like a good time to release this little puzzle I wrote a FULL YEAR ago. It's called “Bootiful.” Every response in this game is a single word that ends with the “boo” sound. (Featuring music by Landon Beall, Mark Sparling, Broke For Free, and Nheap.)

The puzzle I'm serving up for you today was printed on some cards I handed out at Ouerdplait's live show in February, so until now, the only folks who have seen this puzzle were the ones who showed up to that live show. It ain't much, but it's something. Each correct answer in this game will be a single word with the letters “C-O-N” in consecutive order. (Featuring music by Landon Beall, Mark Sparling, Broke For Free, and Nheap.)

This is the last puzzle from our live show in February, and goodness, it's a doozy. How many Star Wars character names do you know? That's most of the challenge in this one, honestly. In this game, I'll give you a clue to help you think of a classic Star Wars character name, and I'll give you a hint about what the character's new name might be if one letter is changed. All I want to know is what the character's new name would be once that letter has changed. (Featuring music by Landon Beall, Mark Sparling, and Nheap.)

And now that we've had our Marvel round, it seems only fitting that we offset that with a round devoted to DC Comics, specifically… The Batman. You guys? Keep this on the down-low, but I think… I think Bruce Wayne? He might be the guy. Ssh. I know. I KNOW! I mean, he's rich, he's been around the world, his parents were tragically killed all those years ago, so there's motive… I think I might really be onto something here. In fact, I've got Mr. Wayne's bank statements from the last 20 years to prove it. I swear, I'm not crazy! So in this exposé, I'll name something Bruce has had charged to his bank account over the past few years, but I've been staring at these papers so much over the past six weeks that I might need a little help remembering the exact word for what I'm trying to name. Every correct answer here will be a single word that contains the consecutive letters B-A-T. That's conclusive proof! (Featuring music by Landon Beall, Broke for Free, Mark Sparling, and Cosmo Cub.)

Seems like wherever you go nowadays you just can't escape the presence of Marvel! From the X-Men and Avengers to the Guardians of the Galaxy, they're just… everywhere! In this puzzle, we'll be doing some Marvel Math Mashups. I'll start by giving you a clue involving a Marvel character and some other piece of pop culture that will share a common word. Your job will be to successfully mash up the two bits into one answer. (Featuring music by Landon Beall, Nheap, and Mark Sparling.)

Welcome, honorary Hogwarts students, to “Parseltongue 101.” Parseltongue is, as you almost certainly already know, the ability to speak with snakes. Many powerful wizards, like Harry Potter and Voldemort, were well-known for their ability to speak Parseltongue. For natural parseltongues, it's possible to speak it without even realizing. However, since so much of the snake language sounds so similar to an outsider, it can be hard to pick it up if you're not naturally gifted. But contrary to many other magical educators, I myself believe that even No-Maj folks can learn to talk to snakes if they're willing to put in the work. Sorry, if there are any British wizards and witches in the audience, I meant Muggles. You probably knew that. Anyway, in this session, we'll be learning the basics of how to speak parseltongue. I'll be asking you some questions, and the correct answer to each question will contain at least one S—and to get into the parseltongue mindset, which is sort of the first step for non-native speakers, I encourage you all to REALLY lean on those Ss. (Featuring music by Landon Beall, Nheap, Mark Sparling, and Venere.)

For today's puzzle, we're taking a dive into the Joss Whedon TV series “Firefly” and its big-screen follow-up “Serenity.” I'll start by reading off the letters of a word associated with the Firefly universe, except I'll only be reading the word's consonants. You'll have to suss out the vowels and think of the full word yourself. I'll give you an extra clue to help you along. (Featuring music by Broke for Free, Nheap, Mark Sparling, and jdc5294.)

There is no set of villains quite as iconic as the Daleks from Doctor Who, and they're pretty well known for saying “EXTERMINATE,” in their very staccato tone. In this puzzle, I'll be trying to teach you to talk like a Dalek yourself. I'll start with a clue, as usual. And here's the hook: every correct response in this game will be a single word that begins with the letter E and ends with the “ate” sound. (Featuring music by Landon Beall, Nheap, and Mark Sparling [”Day 2″ and “Day 8″].) Want more? Browse our entire back catalog of puzzles at Ouerdplait.com.

This entry marks the last Ouerdplait of 2015, and I could think of no better way to pay tribute to the year that was than to spin up a puzzle based on the very digits this year is composed of. This puzzle is called “Digital Love.”Each correct response in this game will be a phrase or hyphenated word containing one of the digits in the year 2015—two, zero, one or five. (Featuring music by Landon Beall, Broke for Free, Nheap, and Mark Sparling [”Day 2″ and “Day 8″].)

Here's a nifty bonus episode for all you holly jolly fans. Christian Garman and Travis Brown, co-workers of mine, have their own podcast called Digital Downtime, where they discuss recent events and interview local guests. They had me on their show earlier this month to promote Ouerdplait, and they faced off in a head-to-head puzzle challenge I wrote just for them. It was fun, and they said they'd be happy to have me back in the future. Enjoy this segment, extracted from their full episode. (Featuring music by tweek.)

Kwanzaa derives from a Swahili phrase meaning “first fruits of the harvest,” and was established in 1965 as a means to help African-Americans reconnect with their African heritage through meditation and study, and also through celebrating the “seven principles of African heritage.” And here's the thing: I read up on Kwanzaa. I tried to think of a way to incorporate it into a puzzle while still being somewhat respectful, because Kwanzaa is a thing that's actually really  important to most people who celebrate it. But try as I might, I couldn't figure out a way to build a decent Kwanzaa puzzle, and I didn't want to settle for making a half-decent one. So while I'm more than happy to wish anyone who celebrates it a Joyous Kwanzaa… let's take another aside from the holiday season for something a little different. (With music byLandon Beall, Broke for Free, Nheap, and Mark Sparling [”Day 2″ and “Day 8″].)

One truly interesting thing about language is how much it evolves over time. We're all about shortening words these days, either for the sake of brevity or just so you'll seem cool to your friends. As I record this, there are only 9 days left until Christmas Day, and some people consider it disrespectful when you truncate the word "Christmas" to "Xmas." They say it takes the "Christ" out of "Christmas," and in a literal sense, I guess theyr'e right... but here's the thing. The use of "Xmas" dates back to the 16th century, back when, I think it's safe to say, Christianity was a pretty massive force in the world. You have to imagine that if saying "Xmas" were really such a problem, it would've been stamped out before the 17th century rolled around. Anyway, our puzzle today revolves around that much-maligned letter, perhaps the trickiest of all English letters. It's time to celebrate our friend the X with a round of "First Things First." (With music by Landon Beall, Broke for Free, Nheap, and Mark Sparling [”Day 2″ and “Day 8″].)

Well, we're right in the middle of Hanukkah, but we already did an episode on that last week. That means I don't really have a holiday to base a puzzle around today, so instead, I've turned to my own hobbies for inspiration. I've always been a fan of video games, and one of my favorite game series is called Mega Man. The original game is about a robot boy named Mega Man who fights against his robot brothers, who've been re-programmed to be evil by the fiendish Dr. Wily. The original Mega Man series has 11 entries to date, and each of those games features brand new baddies for Mega Man to fight, from Cut Man (a lumberjack robot with scissors on his head) to Pump Man (a sewer-dwelling robot who works like an old-timey water pump). You may notice that the name of our hero, Mega Man, as well as that of all of his enemies, end with the word “man.” That's all I need to put together a quick puzzle. (With music by Landon Beall, Broke for Free, Nheap, Mark Sparling [”Day 2″ and “Day 8″], and Takashi Tateishi [“Game Start”].)

Well, as the year winds down, we find ourselves heading more and more into the holiday season. Different people celebrate different holidays based on their own personal belief, background, and upbringing, but generally, folks understand that the holiday season is a time to be a little more compassionate, to feel a bit closer to your fellow man. I say all that to say this: Hanukkah begins this coming Sunday, so I thought I should make a puzzle that related to the holiday in some way. I did encounter one small problem while I was putting the episode together, and basically, it's that… I don't really know anything about Hanukkah. (With music by Landon Beall, Broke for Free, Nheap, Mark Sparling [”Day 2″ and “Day 8″], and Dov Rosenblatt, Rosi Golan, & Deena Goodman.)

This particular puzzle is releasing on November the 25th, the day just before Americans like myself will celebrate Thanksgiving, a time of… well, thanksgiving. It's a time when you look past your life's frustrations and count your blessings, the things you're really privileged to have, that you usually take for granted. In today's puzzle, we also give thanks… but not for personal possessions, our good health, or our family. Let's us instead celebrate one of the finest actors to ever grace the silver screen, Mr. Tom Hanks. We're giving thanks for T. Hanks. Yes, I may have, in fact, written all that fluffy, warm patter just so I could make a stupid pun. It's what I do. (With music by Landon Beall, Broke for Free, Nheap, and Mark Sparling [”Day 2″ and “Day 8″].)

Lots of people, if you ask, will tell you they have a favorite number, or a lucky number. I myself have a great fondness for the number 3. Don't ask me why. Couldn't tell you. All I know is, when I see the number three when I'm out there in the world, especially if it's in a group of three, I can't help but smile a little bit to myself. And wouldn't you know it: our puzzle today deals with that very number. (With music by Landon Beall, Broke for Free, Nheap, and Mark Sparling [”Day 2″ and “Day 8″].)

It's here! A brand new thing for the holidays! (This week's Ouerdplait Mini features music by Landon Beall, Broke for Free, Nheap, and Mark Sparling [”Day 2″ and “Day 8″].) Today's puzzle goes out to everyone who's ever listened to our show or read our blog and feels like they get every single one of our questions wrong. Is that you? Well, you're in luck! For today's puzzle, I'm looking for nothing BUT wrong answers! Of course, they DO have to be the RIGHT wrong answers…

It's almost Halloween, and that puts Adam in the spirit (no pun intended) to cook up some puzzles that are creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky, and Kat, Alicia, and Stephanie are ready for the challenge. Zac and Danial snipe some questions from the sidelines, we chat about our close, personal friend Bob DeNiro, and Adam introduces the gang to his old buddy Mike. Puzzles featured in this episode: I) Trick or Treat II) Triskaidekaphobia III) Assisted Anagrams: Clothes Make the Monster IV) Halloween at the Inventory Find more Ouerdplait puzzles at http://www.ouerdplait.com. Thanks to Landon Beall (http://bit.ly/LBmusic) and Nordloef (http://www.nordloef.com) for our music. Subscribe to the show via iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ouerdplait/id997648102 Subscribe via RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ouerdplait Or download here: http://archive.org/download/ouerdplait_ep015/ouerdplait_ep015.mp3

Zac, plus newcomers Danial and Stephanie take on the latest round of puzzles. Meanwhile, Kat helps Adam recall fond memories, Alicia reveals she's a crunchy hippie, and then there was Carl. Carl didn't make it. Puzzles featured in this episode: I) In Other Words: Small Screen II) Missing Links III) Ology-ology IV) Endgame: Poker Find more Ouerdplait puzzles at http://www.ouerdplait.com. Thanks to Landon Beall (http://bit.ly/LBmusic) and Mark Sparling (http://www.marksparling.com) for our music. Subscribe to the show via iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ouerdplait/id997648102 Subscribe via RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ouerdplait Or download here: http://archive.org/download/ouerdplait_ep014/ouerdplait_ep014.mp3