Tag Archives: Geeking Out

A hundred pennies for my thoughts…

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s blog post marks my one-hundredth post for the PuzzleNation blog. With the one-hundredth anniversary of the Crossword a few months away, I’m proud to add my own little PuzzleNation milestone to the long, proud history of puzzles.

One hundred posts. Boy, posting twice a week adds up fast, doesn’t it? Appropriate, since a jiffy is 1/100th of a second. (Sorry, I’ve got number trivia on the brain.)

If this blog was a TV show, this post would’ve marked it for syndication. (A syndication deal would allow a channel to run one rerun of the show every weekday for 20 weeks.)

The 100th episode is always a big one for a show, and since they nearly always happen in the fifth season of a show, they’ve had time to plan something special. Weddings, showdowns, big doin’s. How I Met Your Mother staged a big musical moment, The Office had the Dunder-Mifflin picnic (and Pam’s pregnancy announcement), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer had Buffy dying (again).

But my one-hundredth post isn’t the only milestone to celebrate. We’re closing in on the blog’s two-hundredth post overall in a few weeks!

While we’ve still got a ways to go before we’re in the same arena as Gunsmoke or The Simpsons (635 and 531 episodes, respectively), 200 is nothing to sneeze at. That’s the average number of seeds in a strawberry, and the average number of lights on a Christmas tree. (Sorry, more number trivia. I can’t help myself.)

I don’t have anything nearly as grandiose as the examples above planned. Instead, I’d like to go the Seinfeld route and look back on some of my favorite posts. Like the 100 tiles in a standard Scrabble set, I’ve chosen carefully. =)

Of course, I have to start with the 5 Questions posts, which have quickly become favorites of mine (especially after getting to chat with Wink Martindale!). Having the opportunity to talk to puzzlers, event organizers, authors, and celebrities about what puzzles mean to them is an incredibly cool experience, and I hope the readers enjoy them as much as I do. (Click here and scroll down to see every installment so far.)

And speaking of puzzles (as I often do), I have to include a pair of clue-centric posts featuring terrifically clever and funny clues (some of which were deemed too tongue-in-cheek for solvers).

This one goes back to last year, but it still makes me laugh. It’s my puzzle resume, detailing all the puzzly experiences that led me to PuzzleNation.

In the same spirit, we have this post about how solving puzzles is actually excellent training for the aspiring James Bond-style spies among us.

And no list of favorite posts would be complete without this lovely bit of puzzle romance.

Last, and certainly not least, I present an introduction to the Diggin’ Words dogs, our friendly anagram-loving pooches.

Thank you, puzzlers, for your enthusiasm and support over these last 100 posts. I’m looking forward to celebrating many similar milestones with you in the future.

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, check out our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

Optical illusions: playing with your perspective

Posted on by
3

Optical illusions are a delight. Puzzles for the eye, they play with our expectations, our deductive abilities, our biological blindspots, and our ability to process light, shadow, motion, and perspective.

We’ve featured optical illusions several times before, from the large-scale works of Felice Varini to the mystery of the Necker Cube, but we never seem to run out of clever ways to deceive the eye and conjure magical effects from the simplest materials.

So today, I thought we could indulge ourselves in some first-class visual trickery. =)

Our first video was produced by Samsung, and features 10 optical illusions in 2 minutes. Can you suss out the techniques being employed?

This next illusion is a prime example of after-images (the most famous one being the American flag with black stars, a tan/yellow field, and black and blue/green stripes).

Forced perspective (like that in the LEGO picture at the top of the page) has been a cherished film and photographic trick for decades — from Darby O’Gill and the Little People to Honey I Blew Up the Kid — and here’s a particularly wonderful illustration of how effective forced perspective can be.

Finally, we have the video that inspired this entry, courtesy of the science-minded folks at IO9.

There is a famous mathematical conundrum known as the triangle paradox (or Curry’s triangle paradox, after magician Paul Curry), wherein it appears that you can lose or gain area from a shape by cutting it into pieces and moving them around.

The video illustrates the concept behind the triangle paradox by offering an intriguing promise: how to cheat mathematics and make chocolate out of nothing. (Warning: watching this video may aggravate your sweet tooth.)

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, check out our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

5 Questions with game show host Wink Martindale

Posted on by
1

Welcome to the sixth edition of PuzzleNation Blog’s interview feature, 5 Questions!

We’re reaching out to puzzle constructors, video game writers and designers, writers, filmmakers, and puzzle enthusiasts from all walks of life, talking to people who make puzzles and people who enjoy them in the hopes of exploring the puzzle community as a whole.

And I’ve never been more excited to introduce our latest 5 Questions interviewee… it’s Wink Martindale!

No list of legendary game show hosts would be complete without including Wink Martindale, a man whose winning smile and immense charm has made him one of the premiere go-to hosts on radio and television for decades.

Host of “Debt”, “The New High Rollers”, “Las Vegas Gambit”, and numerous other shows, he was awarded a well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006, cementing his legacy as game show royalty alongside other greats like Bill Cullen and Gene Rayburn.

Wink very graciously agreed to take some time out to talk to us, so without further ado, let’s get to the interview!

5 Questions for Wink Martindale

1.) You have hosted an astonishing twenty-one game shows, including “Password Plus,” “The New Tic-Tac-Dough,” and my personal favorite, “Trivial Pursuit.” Beyond winning prizes, what do you think is the appeal of game shows to viewers?

Game shows have always enjoyed an appeal – from their days on radio to the present. In my view the main reason is that listeners/viewers LOVE to see other people become “winners”. They play along picturing themselves as contestants…i.e. “I can do that”! Little do they know “it’s not quite as easy as it looks”.

2.) What qualities does a great game show contestant need? In your estimation, how much of an asset is a background in puzzles when it comes to strategy and game show success?

A background in puzzles is certainly not a requirement for a contestant. The main requirement is the player’s desire to “win” and compete. He or she should know the rules of game play “backwards and forwards” before attempting to play the game on TV. Naturally if the show is Q & A it helps to be above average at all subjects of trivia.

3.) What’s your fondest memory from your work in television?

I have far too many to attempt to come up with just one “favorite” memory. But if I had to nail just one – it would probably be the day my agent called and told me I’d been selected as host of my FIRST network game show, “What’s This Song”, on NBC – 1966. Like your first car or your first house, there is nothing that can compete with THE FIRST anything!

4.) In the last few years, you’ve appeared on “Instant Recall” and Betty White’s comedy show “Off Their Rockers.” What hobbies and activities do you enjoy in your off-time?

I tried golf several years ago. But being a left-hander I quickly determined golf wasn’t for me. I took up tennis and to this day it is my favorite sport, and pastime.

5.) If you could give the readers, writers, aspiring game show contestants, and puzzle fans in the audience one piece of advice, what would it be?

The most important piece of advice I ALWAYS give to those who ask, whether they be aspiring contestants, hosts….whomever – is prepare yourself (re-read #2 above). And if possible – acquire as much formal education as possible….high school and/or college.

Plus, if hosting is one’s love, if possible get as much experience as possible in your hometown and/or small market. My BS degree from the U. of Memphis along with my years on radio helped me immensely in terms of overall knowledge and the ability to ad-lib.

Many many thanks to Wink Martindale for his time and the terrific crew at Wink Martindale Productions for their help setting this up! You can keep up with Wink’s latest endeavors on his website, Wink’s World. I can’t wait to see what he’s got for us next.

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, check out our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

Pencil vs. Pen: Not that big a deal

Posted on by
1

With conventions and clubs and the all-access nature of the Internet, it’s easier than ever before to connect with likeminded people who enjoy the TV shows, books, films, and activities that you do. Fandom isn’t simply alive and well these days, it’s positively thriving.

Any devoted fandom will have its talking points, its hot-button issues, and sometimes, its schism-inducing disagreements. (Star Wars vs. Star Trek is probably one that will never ever die, no matter how much we might want it to.)

One prominent example is the recent backlash at conventions and on the Internet regarding “fake geek girls.” Now that many nerdy pursuits have found their way into the mainstream (thanks to Comic-Con, Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory, Doctor Who, and many other outlets), lady nerds have been ostracized as not being true fans.

As a proud member of numerous nerdy fandoms — Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, and puzzles being but a small sample — it’s distressing to see fans turn on each other for stupid, petty reasons.

The only requirement of fandom should be enjoying something. Period.

The band The Doubleclicks have put together a marvelous video that not only celebrates geekdom in all its forms, but abolishes the ridiculous notion of “fake geek girls” in one fell swoop:

And the puzzle community is hardly immune to such ardent feelings and emotional reactions.

There are entire blogs devoted to dissecting the New York Times and Los Angeles Times crosswords on a daily basis, decrying unfair, misleading, or just plain wrong clues and entries.

And while it’s not nearly as high on the scale of ridiculous schisms as the “fake geek girl” or a given day’s crossword kerfuffle, you’ll get some seriously funny reactions if you raise the question of solving puzzles in pencil or ink.

It’s been said that egotism is doing the New York Times crossword puzzle with a pen. (A quote hilariously misattributed to Ambrose Bierce, who disappeared three decades before the NY Times ever printed a crossword.)

I don’t know about that. I solve in ink, but that’s only because every eraser in my house has long since been rubbed away into nonexistence.

I guess what I’m trying to say is… it’s awesome that people are so passionate about the things they enjoy. Just try to remember that someone can still be just as big a fan as you and still disagree with you.

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, check out our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

Hold on, let’s be logical about this…

Posted on by
Reply

A few weeks ago, I did a blog post exploring the history of paper puzzles, comparing relatively new puzzle innovations like crosswords and Sudoku — crosswords are nearing their 100th anniversary, and Sudoku has only been around a few decades in its current form — to a much older style of puzzling, the riddle.

But it occurs to me that another branch of puzzles, logic puzzles, can trace their formative roots nearly as far back.

Logic puzzles are a curious breed of puzzles, since they rely less on grids and trivia and more on deductive reasoning. (Yes, many solving styles utilize grids, like this one from our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles, but they’re not strictly necessary.)

If I was to chart the evolution of puzzles like that of animals or plants, riddles and logic puzzles would be offshoots of the same ancestor. Riddles are actually very simplistic logic puzzles, since they often rely on a single twist or turn of phrase.

For example, there’s the riddle “what gets wetter as it dries?”

The answer is “a towel.” The riddle relies on logical misdirection. The structure implies a passive voice (something becoming dry) but its actual structure is active voice (something actually drying another object).

This is known as a garden path sentence, and a terrific example is this quotation often attributed to Groucho Marx: “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.”

The main difference between the two is the complexity of logic puzzles as they’ve developed. Riddles are a one-and-done trick of wordplay, while logic puzzles are multilayered exercises in deduction.

So, from riddles, it’s easy to imagine mystery stories and whodunits as the next precursor in the development of logic puzzles. From the early days of the genre’s creation at the hands of Edgar Allan Poe to its explosion in popularity under the quick and clever pens of Agatha Christie and her fellow authors, the plot of virtually every mystery story is a logic puzzle in itself.

The arrangement is similar. You’re given your setting and the circumstances that gathered the players together. Then you’re given the pertinent information on who was where at a given time, and it’s left to you (and the ubiquitous detective) to unravel the truth from a convoluted mishmash of information.

Except for the detective, that’s the modern day logic puzzle exactly.

(I snagged this helpful image from www.logic-puzzles.org.)

Heck, there are even some mystery stories that are considered unsolved, practically waiting for an enterprising logic puzzle fan to find the key piece of evidence that will unlock the entire story.

Frank Stockton’s story “The Lady, or the Tiger?” comes to mind, as does Stanley Ellin’s “Unreasonable Doubt”. (I encountered these stories in Otto Penzler’s collection Uncertain Endings: The World’s Greatest Unsolved Mystery Stories.)

And in case you’re curious as to why I’m rambling about riddles and Poe and how they directly or indirectly influenced the evolution of logic puzzles as we know them… the answer is simple.

With the hundredth anniversary of the crossword fast approaching, it’s made me wonder just how long the spirit of puzzle-solving has been with us as a civilization.

And when you can trace logic puzzles back hundreds of years and riddles back thousands of years, it’s hard not to smile and imagine that we’re enjoying the same mental and puzzly challenges generations and generations of others have tackled in the past.

It’s a humbling and heartening thought.

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, check out our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

Wanna bet?

Posted on by
1

One of my most frequent blog post topics is how puzzles and puzzle skills relate to the modern world. I love seeking out new ways to apply what puzzles teach us to everyday life, and there are few puzzle-centric activities more gratifying than using your puzzly skills to pull a fast one on your friends.

Oh yes, I’m talking about bar bets.

We’ve spotlighted Richard Wiseman’s Quirkology videos twice before, and he’s produced another gem, featuring 10 tricks and brain-teasers with which to baffle and challenge your friends.

(Of course, if you keep bamboozling them out of money, they probably won’t want to hang out with you anymore, so use these tricks sparingly.)

Enjoy this latest batch of crafty cons and puzzly shenanigans.