Welcome to Decoder Ring, the roundup of topical puzzles and puns the world serves up for our amusement, if only we take the time to notice. If you come across some, send them to decodewired@gmail.com.
Incompetent TV puzzle of the week: In August, AMC’s Rubicon series drew snickers from the puzzle community for this unhinged “New York Times crossword” we featured on Decode. The TV industry seems not to have learned from that AMC’s mistakes, as evidenced by this off-kilter cryptogram from the ABC show Kidnapped. It starts plausibly, but after eight words, it all goes to hell. Thanks to reader Doug Orleans for providing this.
After that was brought to his attention, reader Trip Payne noted the following “New York Times crossword” in this week’s How I Met Your Mother, which I screen-capped. Note the extra (and problematic) black squares in the corners, and the total of 26 clues for the whole puzzle.
Things I might not’ve noticed had I been on the Carnival Splendor this week:
You probably saw the video this week of contestant Caitlin Burke solving a Wheel of Fortune puzzle with just one L. Turns out she didn’t even need the L.
On Saturday, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno won his milestone 400th victory by beating… well, we won’t discuss that. As the Big Ten season winds down, we now have the prospect of Nebraska joining the conference next year. The Big Ten is no stranger to numerical illiteracy, since Penn State’s addition in 1990 gave the conference with a “Ten” in its name 11 members. Soon the Big Ten will have 12 teams, but it can’t exactly call itself the Big 12, since that’s the conference Nebraska’s in right now. Whatever happens on the numbers front, we will certainly have to big farewell to one of the best subliminal logos of all time, shown at right. The “11” divots into the G perfectly, and only mildly impacts the T.Guard Brandon Roy has alarmed Portland Trailblazers fans by hurting his knee again. Roy has the distinction of winning the NBA’s Rookie of the Year (ROY) award in 2007, making him the second athlete named Roy to win an ROY award. The first was Montreal Canadiens goalkeeper Patrick Roy, who won the rookie-honoring Calder Memorial Trophy in 1987.
When you saw Megamind earlier this month — I’m just going to assume anyone reading this column would do so, given the title — which made you laugh more: the fact that the library scene featured a cutout of Metroman with the phrase “READ WORDS KIDS,” or that you wondered where the comma was? Personally, I liked that the accidental superbeing Titan spelled his own name “Tighten.” Regardless, the most interesting observation I had when we saw this occurred outside the theater, when I took this photo of the posters for Red and For Colored Girls. This is a rare instance of a first-run movie’s title that’s found inside the name of an unrelated first-run movie.
This week’s Noodler: Hmmm. No one got the answer I was looking for in last week’s Noodler, where I asked for a U.S. House race featuring a candidate whose last name is a type of place against a candidate whose last name is an object you’d find in that place. I was looking for Michigan’s 4th District, where Dave CAMP defeated Jerry CAMPBELL. But Decode contributor Michael Anderson came up with Indiana’s 6th District, where Barry WELSH was defeated by Mike PENCE. This week, in honor of the Country Music Awards, I want to know what nominated act’s first name contains all the letters of the act’s last name. If you’re the first to send that act’s full name to decodewired@gmail.com, you’ll be a Ringer too.
Where the geeks are this week: At Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, N.Y., enjoying my colleague Will Shortz’s Wonderful World of Words. Many special guests from the world of words and puzzles will be there, as will a treasure hunt across the scenic lodge. A brochure for the weekend is here. Solve the Writer’s Block puzzle and you’ll get a sense of the festivities.
NaNoWriMi update: Wired‘s National Novel Writing Minute challenge continues, with about 90 novels posted as of this writing. Here’s my favorite this week, from Quest1962: The Case of the Missing“How many in your party?” the hostess asked. “Four”, Donna replied, assuming she didn’t consider the 2 bound in the trunk part of the group. It was Ladies Night, and she was NOT about to let them put a damper on the evening.
Finally, a piece of advice about how not to construct a puzzlehunt: Thanks much to Ryan K. Hudson and Channelate.com for letting me borrow this cartoon.
Mike Selinker is a game and puzzle designer who heads the Seattle-area studio Lone Shark Games. He also writes a blog about non-puzzly stuff called The Most Beautiful Things.
