Passing the Baton Rouge
A trip to the Puzzle Zoo
I adore hunts that take a very simple form and explore every possible way to turn it into a puzzle. The latest is the Zoo, by noneuclidean, a massive spreadsheet made up of just animal emoji, lines, and questions marks. No instructions, no words at all, just a bunch of cell-based puzzles, and an answer checker. There seem to be over a 100 on the sheet. I started on it yesterday and I'm up to 54 solved so far. Just an absolute delight.
Latest Puzzler
Every month I post a new bite-sized puzzle. Here's the latest one:
Think of a US state capital. It partly shares a name with a onetime TV personality. Then think of one of that state’s biggest cities. Change one letter in the city's name, and you'll get that TV star’s successor.
Submit your answer here 🗳Game Changer: Home Edition
This game has been here the whole time! Game Changer, Dropout TV's tentpole show, is out with a party game based on the show. It's up on Kickstarter now, and as of this writing, has raised an eye-popping $4.4 million. The home edition contains games inspired by bits on the show: Bingo, Sam Says, and Name a Number. Dropout, along with game designer Joshua Balvin created something that was "original, a huge amount of fun, a borderline act of terrorism upon your friend group, and a love letter to the show". Also, in typical Dropout fashion, they are playing with the form and offering Daily Community Challenges, where community members can earn points which in turn unlock more rewards.
San Francisco Treasure Hunt
On Wednesday April 29th, a reddit post went up on the San Francisco subreddit announcing another treasure hunt. The last one was posted one year ago anonymously, and was found in just 11 hours. Now, they've released another riddle and people are racing to find a chest weighing in at about 150 pounds and containing over $10,000. As far as I can tell, no one's found it yet. Read more about it at The New York Times.
David Kwong's The Puzzle Room
David Kwong is a puzzler, mentalist, magician, and New York Time crossword constructor. He just launched a "video podcast" on Netflix, The Puzzle Room with David Kwong, where he brings on celebrity guests to unravel clues and solve puzzles. Two episodes are up now.
Strange Buildings
HarperVia
Strange Buildings is the latest horror-mystery from Japanese author Uketsu, who gained fame on YouTube, where he appeared concealed in a white papier-mâché mask and a black bodysuit, and spoke through a voice changer. His 2022 novel Strange Pictures sold over 2 million copies. His books include diagrams and floor plans alongside the text to help tell the stories.
Hello, Puzzlers!
Back in March, I joined my friends A.J. Jacobs and Greg Pliska on their podcast Hello, Puzzlers! They threw some riddles at me and I threw some riddles back at them. You can watch the full episode here.
Solution to the March Puzzler
Start with the name of a ’90s rock band, in three words. Change the first letters of two of those words and anagram the whole thing to get the name of another ’90s rock band in three words. Which bands are these?