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Stepp The Tanks

By Sandy Weisz in The Signal
Oct 15, 2026 · 5 min read

Hello! Fall is here, and each year as the weather gets cooler, the trees get barer, and my neighbors' homes get spookier, I start thinking about the Holiday Party Season. Winter is the busiest time for the team-building side of my business, The Mystery League. Everyone's looking for something fun to do, and the correct answer is: puzzles. Like this one:

If you or your boss are in a position to hire for team-building activities, please consider The Mystery League! Just send them that link, or hit reply on this email and ask me any questions you've got. Thank you! ❤️

Puzzler

Every month I post a new bite-sized puzzle. Here's the latest one:

Think of a kind of landform and the country most associated with it. The capital of that country can be anagrammed to a well-known movie character, and the landform can have a letter removed to name the actor who played that character. Where/what/who?

Submit your answer 🗳

The Witching Hour

The latest boxed puzzle game by Rita Orlov is up on Kickstarter. It’s a tabletop puzzletale in which you solve your way through a cursed maze to unravel a mystery from the past. The campaign has already passed ten times its $15,000 goal and runs through October 29. All of Rita's games are incredible, and I expect this one to be no different.

The Math of Going First

A board game designer asked Auburn math lecturer Eric Harshbarger to design dice that would settle who goes first in a game with no ties, and equal odds for every player. Four players took 12-sided dice. Five players took nearly 15 years of work by an international group of mathematicians and programmers.

Hello, Signal readers! Nick here from Paper Airplane magazine. Did you know that Sandy was one of the original contributors to Paper Airplane’s debut issue, which raised more than $10,000 for Refugees.org?

I asked Sandy if I could be the first-ever sponsor for this newsletter because I count several of its readers among my own subscribers, and I wanted to spread the word to more of you!

Paper Airplane just released Vol. 4 with the most games yet, including multiple full-page word puzzles, a mad science maze by a Guinness World Record-holding mazemaker, a “Cryptid-Gram,” and a new installment of “Escape This Page!” Plus: wordplay, comics, photos, longform, book excerpts, and more—with no ads and no A.I.

Available in digital and print!

Get Paper Airplane

Learn Cryptic

Learn Cryptic is a free on-ramp to British-style cryptic crosswords. It serves up one handmade clue each day, with hints if you get stuck. If you want to sharpen your skills on all those elusive cryptic clue conventions, make this a daily habit.

Roughly: Pin The Pin on the World

Roughly is a free collection of daily estimation games. Each one asks a different question (where, when, how big, how many, how expensive, how sweet), and you answer by dragging, pulling, or drawing your guess before seeing how far off you were. Five new rounds per game drop every day, and you can open a room to play along with friends.

I Am Not Associated With This Show

This show is stomping all over my SEO. Not sure what to do about it, as I don't really feel like picking a fight with — checks notes — PBS Kids. Maybe they should hire me to embed an ARG in the show to make it up to me.

Raddle Mystery #12

… is up right now. Appropriately, there'll be twelve Raddles in this set. I've posted three hints so far. Enjoy!

Solution to the September Puzzler

Take the name of a comedic TV host. The first two letters of their first name and the first two letters of their last name, taken together, make the last name of another comedic TV host. Who are they?

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