Horse Horde House
The pros of Con
I just returned from the 185th convention of the National Puzzlers' League, in Minneapolis, MN. The organization dates back to 1883, and I've been a member since 2017. The league is a lovely group of similarly minded puzzle nerds, and the convention, known as Con, is our annual chance to hang out with each other, solve puzzles, play games, do local escape rooms, and showcase our latest creations. This year there were close to three dozen first-time attendees, including someone who'd been a member for decades but never made it to Con, a couple teenagers, some local puzzle-lovers from the Twin Cities, and my wife Sarah!
Some things I did at Con this year:
- Visited Reme (Remus's legendary counterpart to Romulus' Rome) to solve a puzzle extravaganza, featuring brilliant puzzle design and also kinetic LEGO constructions?! (See pic below)
- Played several homemade variations on Jeopardy! including one that involved buzzing in by hurling Hot Wheels.
- Cracked the code on a large wooden puzzle box
- Solved a hunt throughout the downtown Minneapolis sculpture garden
- Placed third in a combination
Pizza Hut-Taco BellPuzzle Hunt-Trivia Battle - Ate breakfast at Al's in Dinkytown, natch
- Connected with old friends and made lots of new ones
If you're looking to dive deeper into the community of puzzlers, I encourage you to join. Next year's Con will be in July 2025 in Bloomington, IN. You can learn more info at puzzlers.org.
July Puzzler
Every month I post a new bite-sized puzzle. Here's the latest one:
Think of a five-letter animal. Change one letter to get an activity that the animal can help you achieve. Or, change a different letter to get an object often employed in that activity. (Hint: both the activity and object involve counts.) What words are these?
Submit your answer here 🗳Paper Airplane Vol. 1
I have a puzzle in the first issue of Paper Airplane magazine:
As they put it:
Paper Airplane is the grown-up version of the kind of magazine you used to look forward to getting as a kid—a fun, fascinating, and uncynical collection of writing, games, comics, infographics, photos, art, and activities.
It's available via a donation to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nongovernmental, not-for-profit international organization dedicated to providing legal, social, and health services in all 50 states and internationally. All money raised goes directly to USCRI.
Metagame Conference
Arbor Team
Metagame is a weekend conference in Berkeley in September that is exploring, broadly, what constitutes a "game." It's an experiment by organizer Ricki Heicklen, who sees the event as both a game and a conference about games. They're explicitly inviting talks, games, and sessions that are experimental. The speaker lineup so far includes Frank Lantz (Universal Paperclips), puzzle designer Matthew Stein (who I worked with on Pilcrow Bar and several other projects) and Jeopardy champ Amy Schneider.
Rackenfracker Cryptics
The Rackenfracker is putting out some deviously inventive variety cryptic crosswords. Their tagline sums up how I feel about their output: "Time well misspent". Each crossword they publish pushes the bounds of normal construction a little bit. Their clues are fresh, the construction solid, and the themes are always super fun. Strong recommend.
Search for a Superhero on REA
Lisa Spira
Room Escape Artist just reviewed my tabletop puzzle game "Search for a Superhero" after playing it at their Escape Immerse Explore event in Schaumburg back in April, and called it "elegant puzzle design with impressive depth" — which honestly is the highest praise I can imagine.
Hypnotic Suggestion Sudoku
Sven Neumann, svensvencodes.com
I guess this is turning into a variety sudoku newsletter, to my great astonishment. But as long as these constructors keep pumping out these gems, I guess I'm obliged to solve them, and then link to them. This feels like a magical discovery when you initially look at it, and feels impossible to solve. But it's not actually that tough!
Raddle
The Mystery League
We've surpassed 150 Raddles and we’re still going strong, with a healthy 7,500+ visitors per day. Recent themes include: Emmy nominees, Severance, Superman, and summer produce. Next week: the dog days of summer. Thanks for playing, and thanks for spreading the word!
Solution to the June Puzzler
Take the last name of a famous nineteenth century novelist. Change one letter to get a word for someone who enjoys pot. Alternatively, change a different letter to get a different term for the same. Alternatively still, remove a letter to get yet another term for the same. Who is this?