One of my favorite memes is “You’ve heard of Elf on a Shelf, now…”
Inspired by the family-friendly surveillance toy that took the world by storm, this meme (which dates back to 2016!) gives you the format of “elf on a shelf” and sets you up with a little visual puzzle to solve.
The image above, for instance, gives you Shrek on a deck!
In the pantheon of game show hosts, there are names, there are stars, and there are icons.
Wink Martindale deserves to be called an icon.
He was the host of twenty-one different game shows across a career spanning more than 60 years, including Debt, Tic-Tac-Dough/The New Tac-Tic-Dough, Gambit, High Rollers, and my personal favorite, Trivial Pursuit. (I remember watching and playing along on days I was home sick from school.)
But it may come as a surprise that he contributed far more than memorable game show moments to pop culture.
As a disc jockey in the 1950s, he gave Elvis Presley a lot of airtime, and Elvis rewarded Wink’s enthusiasm and loyalty with his first interview, which was recorded during an episode of Top Ten Dance Party. (Col. Parker was apparently fuming over it!)
His spoken-word song “Deck of Cards” sold over one million copies in 1959, and he made the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.
He continued to work in radio all throughout his life, spanning local disc jockey work all the way to appearances on Sirius Radio in the 2010s. His television appearances were equally varied, running the gamut from Your Hit Parade to The Howard Stern Show, including commercials for Orbitz and KFC.
Wink was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006.
He also has a YouTube channel where he chronicles the history of game shows. You should absolutely check it out. (This episode debuted a mere two hours before he passed.)
On a personal note, I found Wink to be an immensely gracious and giving individual.
Back in 2013, I was only a year into writing what was then known as PuzzleNation Blog, and still finding my feet. I had sent out dozens upon dozens of interview requests to puzzly people, celebrities, authors, and more. One of those many requests went to Wink Martindale Productions.
I received a reply the very next day. He was happy to do so.
He politely corrected me about the number of game shows he had hosted, pointing out it was “one more than the great Bill Cullen.” (Sorry, Hollywood Reporter and MSN, who claimed it was 20, not 21.)
His answers were short and to the point, but honest and charming. He shared that his favorite memory from his career was the day his agent told him he’d be hosting his first game show, What’s This Song, for NBC. “Like your first car or your first house, there is nothing that can compete with THE FIRST anything!”
He didn’t know me or anything about the blog, and yet he took time from his still-busy schedule to give us a boost. It was a kind gesture I’ve never forgotten.
It gives me comfort to know he was surrounded by family and loved ones at the end.
Farewell, Wink. Thank you for your humor and heart and all those memories.
I know, that’s not the most joyful subject to choose for a puzzle and games blog.
But you might be surprised to learn there’s a game out there inspired by Tax Day.
It’s called The Taxman Game, but it’s also known by the names Tax Factor, Number Shark, The Factor Game, Factor Blast, Factor Blaster, or Dr. Factor. Phew! What a list.
It was created by mathematician Diane Resek in the late 1960s or early 1970s. It’s designed to help students practice their division and factorial skills.
Your goal is to choose a number, but the tax you pay is any remaining factors on the board. So, with the example board above, if you chose 18, you’d get 18 points. But the taxman would take 1, 2, 3, 6, and 9 (since 1×18, 2×9, and 3×6 all make 18).
With those numbers gone, you can only choose from numbers with factors remaining on the board. You pick, and again, the computer taxes you by claiming any factors remaining.
This continues until there are no legal moves left. When that happens, the taxman collects ALL of the remaining numbers on the board.
(There’s a two player version as well, where players alternate turns as the taxpayer and the taxman.)
Here was my attempt:
I chose 19 first, because it was the highest value prime number. The taxman only gets 1 as a tax.
I chose 10 next, since the taxman could only collect 2 and 5 from the board, which were lower numbers compared to my other options.
Next I chose 20, because with 10, 2, and 5 off the board, the taxman would only collect 4 points.
That put me at 49 to the taxman’s 12. Pretty good so far.
I chose 9 next, because 3 was the only option for the taxman.
Then I chose 18, because 1, 2, 9, and 3 were all off the table, so the taxman only got 6.
I chose 16 next, giving the taxman 8, then closed my choices with 14, giving the taxman 7.
My final score was 106 to the taxman’s 36.
Until that final rule kicked in.
All the unclaimed numbers went to the taxman. That’s 11, 12, 13, 15, and 17. 68 points!
So the final tally was 106 to 104. I BARELY edged out the taxman.
And that was my best effort!
As challenging as the game was, I really enjoyed it. It taxed my observational and math skills to keep ALL the factors in mind when selecting numbers, and trying to be strategic about the order in which I chose numbers.
And yeah, I’d still rather play this than do my taxes. What about you, fellow puzzler?
The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was this past weekend, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend. I did my best to keep up with the event through social media, enjoying everyone’s observations, jokes, highlights, victories, trials and tribulations.
One message in particular stuck out to me, though.
I can’t remember if it was posting the results after the sixth or the seventh puzzle, but they remarked that they were excited to see some new blood in the top ten.
I couldn’t help but laugh, because all the names were pretty familiar to me.
Paolo Pasco won the tournament for the second year in a row, dominating the final puzzle with a record-breaking time of 3 minutes and 45 seconds. (Solver Paul Edward did the math on Facebook and calculated that Paolo spent less than 34 minutes across the 8 puzzles that weekend. WOW.)
Will Nediger and former champ Dan Feyer duked it out for second place, with Will edging out Dan by ONE SECOND, solving the puzzle in 4 minutes and 38 seconds. What a nailbiter!
The next day, after the tournament was over, I still had that message lurking in my brainspace.
Now, anyone who reads this blog can tell that I’m a nerd for many things. I’m a nerd for puzzles, games, and RPGs. I’m a nerd for trivia.
And I am absolutely a nerd for statistics. I love numbers and analysis and compiling data.
So I read through the full results available for each tournament going back years, focusing on the top ten from this year’s tournament and reflecting on their ACPT careers. I had to see if that “new blood” message had any merit or not, and I figured this was the best way to find out.
Let’s see, shall we?
Emily O’Neill
Emily has been competing since 2005 (unless there’s a name change involved, which is possible), and has been in the top ten twice. She has been in the top 30 ten times!
Glen Ryan
Glen has been competing since 2013 (where he placed 3rd in Division B), and has been in the top ten five times. He has been in the top 30 ten times!
Al Sanders
Al has been competing since 1999 (where he placed in the top three), and has been in the top ten TWENTY times. He has been second place twice and in the top 3 seven times. He has never ranked lower than 21!
Stella Zawistowski
Stella has been competing since 2001, and has been in the top ten THIRTEEN times. She has been in the top 30 nineteen times!
Andy Kravis
Andy has been competing since 2011, and has been in the top ten six times. He has been in the top 30 ten times!
Tyler Hinman
Tyler has been competing since 2001 and is a seven-time champion! He has been in the top ten NINETEEN times (including five times in a row at second place and fourteen times in the top three). He was the Division B winner in his second appearance.
David Plotkin
David has been competing since 2010, and has been in the top ten TWELVE times. He has been in the top 3 six times and has never ranked lower than 28th!
Dan Feyer
Dan has been competing since 2008 and is a nine-time champion! He has been in the top ten SIXTEEN times (literally every time except his first tournament appearance).
[It’s not until the final two names that we really get anyone who qualifies as new blood.]
Will Nediger
Will has been competing since 2021 and has been in the top 3 twice. He has been in the top ten three times (meaning every time he’s competed).
Paolo Pasco
Paolo has been competing since 2021 and is a two-time champion! He has been in the top ten five times (every time he’s competed). He was also the Division B winner in 2022.
You have to go back to the year 1998 to find a tournament that didn’t feature one of these ten people as a solver. That’s amazing!
Originally, I was just going to focus on the top ten solvers from this year’s tournament and their many accomplishments.
But as I was going through the rankings year by year, I was struck by how many names I recognized, and how many times I got to see those names. I got to experience the tournament community as a microcosm across literal decades.
I watched the changing of the guard as some names slowly slipped out of the top ten and were replaced by others. Names like Anne Erdmann and Trip Payne and Jon Delfin and Ellen Ripstein and Douglas Hoylman. I was more familiar with some than others.
The slow evolution of solvers really struck both the puzzle nerd in me and the history nerd in me. I ventured back before my own career in puzzles started (back in 2003).
I’ve never competed at the ACPT, but I attended the event for several years, working the Penny Press / Puzzlenation table in the common area, and I grew familiar with a lot of attendees. Puzzle people are genuinely nice folks, and so many of them were happy to visit for a bit, introducing themselves, checking out our magazines, and taking advantage of our pencil sharpeners.
Everyone was so friendly, sharing their excitement for the event and letting me know their thoughts on each puzzle as the tournament went on. It really is a delight.
(Just don’t start a conversation about which pencils are the best for solving and you’ll be fine!)
New blood or not, the crossword scene is clearly thriving, and I can’t wait to see what next year’s tournament brings.
The insane stupid rodeo of tariff threats, retractions, delays, and new threats continues, and the board game industry is reeling.
Some companies are pausing Kickstarter pledge managers and rollouts until they consult with lawyers and printers. Others are cancelling projects outright.
And these companies are being incredibly honest and forthright with their audiences. I’ve seen at least a half-dozen posts from across the industry, and there are probably many others I’ve missed.
Feel free to click the link to check it out, but I’m going to post much of the text here as well, because it’s straightforward and informative. It avoids hyperbole and confronts the unpleasantness awaiting board game companies going forward. Plus it gives us real numbers to crunch.
(Meredith’s comments are in quotation marks, my comments in italics.)
“On April 5th, a 54% tariff goes into effect on a wide range of goods imported from China. For those of us who create boardgames, this is not just a policy change. It’s a seismic shift.
At Steve Jackson Games, we are actively assessing what this means for our products, our pricing, and our future plans. We do know that we can’t absorb this kind of cost increase without raising prices. We’ve done our best over the past few years to shield players and retailers from the full brunt of rising freight costs and other increases, but this new tax changes the equation entirely.”
Covering the board games industry has been a rollercoaster since COVID 19 reports in China emerged and factories began shutting down. Board game companies adapted quickly, but many suffered, and more than a few closed their doors.
I was hoping that would be the worst of it for the industry, but sadly, that’s obviously no longer the case.I can only imagine what the last five years have been like for board game creators.
“Here are the numbers: A product we might have manufactured in China for $3.00 last year could now cost $4.62 before we even ship it across the ocean. Add freight, warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution margins, and that once-$25 game quickly becomes a $40 product. That’s not a luxury upcharge; it’s survival math.”
Getting real numbers has been a revelation, and I’ve been sharing this post all over in the hopes of people realizing the genuine effect these tariffs will have on businesses.
“Some people ask, “Why not manufacture in the U.S.?” I wish we could. But the infrastructure to support full-scale boardgame production – specialty dice making, die-cutting, custom plastic and wood components – doesn’t meaningfully exist here yet. I’ve gotten quotes. I’ve talked to factories. Even when the willingness is there, the equipment, labor, and timelines simply aren’t.
We aren’t the only company facing this challenge. The entire board game industry is having very difficult conversations right now. For some, this might mean simplifying products or delaying launches. For others, it might mean walking away from titles that are no longer economically viable. And, for what I fear will be too many, it means closing down entirely.
Tariffs, when part of a long-term strategy to bolster domestic manufacturing, can be an effective tool. But that only works when there’s a plan to build up the industries needed to take over production. There is no national plan in place to support manufacturing for the types of products we make. This isn’t about steel and semiconductors. This is about paper goods, chipboard, wood tokens, plastic trays, and color-matched ink. These new tariffs are imposing huge costs without providing alternatives, and it’s going to cost American consumers more at every level of the supply chain.”
This is the real lesson here for anyone supporting these tariffs. You can’t just say you’re bringing manufacturing back to America. You have to DO it. You have to have the facilities, the manpower, the training, the materials, and the wherewithal. These tariffs aren’t just putting the cart before the horse, it’s pushing the cart down the hill and blaming gravity when it crashes.
“We want to be transparent with our community. This is real: Prices are going up. We’re still determining how much and where.
If you’re frustrated, you’re not alone. We are too. And if you want to help, write to your elected officials. Ask them how these new policies help American creators and small businesses. Because right now, it feels like they don’t.
We’ll keep making games. But we’ll be honest when the road gets harder, because we know you care about where your games come from – and about the people who make them.”
Hey folks, it’s your friendly neighborhood puzzle guy back again. (Just wanted to make it clear that everything you read going forward is me, not Meredith.)
It’s a rocky road ahead for board game companies.
Thankfully, we are already seeing industry leaders making moves to handle Trump’s tariffs.
The list of organizations agreeing to work on this is impressive… and inspiring. Sure, it’s a business decision. My cynical little heart sees that.
But imagine if they succeeded and made toys tariff-free across the globe. What a gift to parents and children around the world that would be! What a boon that could be to game designers.
(I reached out to the U.S. Toy Association to confirm if board games and RPGs fall under the toy umbrella, but have not heard back yet.)
So, what can you do in the meantime?
Well, if you have the means to do so, reach out to your officials. Support local game companies. Speak up, loudly and often.
When you think of the board game industry, you probably think of the big companies, the big brands… but there’s only a few of them.
The VAST majority are small businesses led by passionate designers, creative minds, and hardworking people of all ethnicities, ages, backgrounds, and gender identities. They are a chorus of voices that make gaming better, that tell us stories about ourselves through gameplay, that bring history alive and challenge our minds, our reflexes, our collaboration, and our cunning.
THAT is the board game industry I want to see succeed.
Meme culture is constantly evolving. As new memes emerge, others are updated. They mutate, they cross over with other meme styles. It’s virtually a language at this point, a hyper-dynamic vernacular where the rules change as fast as the imagery.
And yet, old memes can resurface for new audiences and make an unexpected impact, like the one I stumbled across this week.
Two years ago, an archaeology report hit internet news feeds. Archaeologists in Kazakhstan uncovered the burial mound of a young girl, somewhere between the ages of 12 and 15. The grave dated back to the Bronze Age, about 5000 years or so.
But that wasn’t what caught the Internet’s attention.
It was the sheep bones that captured everyone’s imagination.
You see, she was buried with 180 ankle bones, also known as astragalus bones, from dozens and dozens of sheep.
Researchers were unsure of the significance of these bones, attributing them to cult practices, totems for meditation, or symbols of good luck to wish the deceased well in their transition to a new world.
Internet readers came to a different conclusion. They believed this young girl was a world-class gamer and these were her trophies, the spoils of victory.
Knuckle bones, ankle bones, and other small, easily-rolled bones have been associated with gaming for centuries. For many cultures, they were the first readily-available dice. This is true in Kazakhstan as well.
In fact, there is a Kazakh game called Assyk, and it’s similar to marbles. Players take an ankle bone and try to knock other ankle bones from the game space. It requires considerable skill, since you’re tossing the assyk from a distance.
Rules vary depending on your sources, but according to some articles about this traditional Kazakh game, winners would keep the ankle bones they knock out of the circle, just like in marbles, pogs, and other games of this nature.
So, if our Bronze Age assyk master followed this rule — and based on the number of bones in her grave, it’s a distinct possibility — that means she didn’t just dabble in this game… she dominated at it, collecting dozens of victories.
Appropriately, the Internet celebrated her as a pro gamer, a tournament-level champion with the hand-eye coordination to dominate modern games as easily as she did games of assyk around her village.
And honestly, how can you not love something like that? Everybody needs a hero, gamers included. A 5000-year-old Bronze Age astragalus-hoarding game sniper is not a bad place to start.
PuzzCulture 