Ask Me Another

If you love playing around with palindromes, quoting Downton Abbey's Dowager Countess, and spotting factual errors in the news (Editor’s note...What factual errors? ...then this episode will make you so happy, you’ll want to clap your hands. Plus, this week’s hilarious Mystery Guest has some advice for the Area Man or Woman in all of us.

What famous fantasy novel follows a group of rabbits in search of laundry detergent? How about Watership Downy? This week, famous works of art and literature are slapped with product placement, we honor...Weird Al...Yankovic’s timeless tunes, and one of Ask Me Another’s own challenges the puzzle world master in an anagram showdown for the ages.

Can you tell the difference between a Harry Potter spell, a prescription drug, and a piece of IKEA furniture? This week, some brainy contestants have the chance to befriend both Gore Vidal and Dracula, while our Mystery Guest, a Rhodes Scholar-turned-filmmaker and comic book scribe, is put to the test in this hour of puzzles and trivia.

This week’s contestants try to translate some international film titles, like...Meetings and Failures in Meetings...back into English, and name another military official, besides Colonel Sanders, who’s famous for his chicken. Chances are, this week’s Mystery Guest, a sweet-toothed chemist in her culinary laboratory, knows the answer.

Host Ophira Eisenberg and her puzzle gurus serve up presidential tunes from our nation’s capital, such as the hit song...Summer of 69... by the second U.S. President John Adams…wait a minute. Also on the menu are a variety of cheeses—or are they Moby Dick characters? This week’s Mystery Guest probably knows, since his specialty is intelligence.

What sounds right...remember the Alamo...or...remember the Aniston? For this hour of puzzles and trivia, it may help to know both. Contestants try to top the lyrical talents of Justin Bieber, while a backwards spelling bee turns a few heads. Plus, our Mystery Guest, a best-selling journalist, tests his knowledge of pro athletes-turned-bad actors.

What ever happened to predictability? ...asked one esteemed poet – or was that a TV theme song? Host Ophira Eisenberg and her puzzle mavens travel to Washington, D.C. to look for math in odd places, and some classic novels find some fitting new underwriters. All this, plus a special visit from this week’s Mystery Guest, a worldly NPR correspondent.

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt shares a name with several of us, but did you know that Swingers director Jon Favreau shares his name with a White House speechwriter? This hour of puzzles and games involves shared names, fictional love triangles, and a quiz specially tailored for our Mystery Guest, a notable rock critic and pop culture aficionado.

What if horror film characters ran personal ads on dating sites, and musicians wrote songs like...Wake Up, Little Herman? Our puzzle gurus imagine such a world, while our Mystery Guest, a 21st-century political darling, tells us what makes America sexy, and shows us that the good life is but a tweet away.

House musician Jonathan Coulton takes a 90s alt-rock hit around the world in this week’s music game, while contestants go to Tinseltown for some weird movie mash-ups. And ever wonder what car Tiger Woods might drive if he wanted to keep out of Page Six? Speaking of news, this week’s Mystery Guests tell us how they keep in tune with the headlines.