Decoder Ring is a column about the clever stuff the world serves up for our enterptainment. As always if you come across some topical puzzles or wordplay, send them to decodewired@gmail.com.
Happy Hanukkah, from a galaxy far, far away: Irvin Kershner, the director of The Empire Strikes Back, passed away on Saturday at the age of 87. The director of what many fans regard as the finest Star Wars film was Jewish, and it’s the first day of Hanukkah. So it seems a fine time to share these mashups by me and Corey Macourek, my Loonbucket Brigade co-conspirator. We both found the lack of geeky Hanukkah offerings to be borderline criminal, so we made these. Enjoy, feel free to share, and RIP, Irvin Kershner.
Things I will light a candle for this week:
Also passing away this weekend was comedy giant Leslie Nielsen, who held a special place in puzzlers’ hearts. His name was composed of just five different letters, those in LINES. This type of puzzle has been dubbed a “letter bank” by National Puzzlers League historian Will Shortz in 1980. After Nielsen’s death, The Puzzling World of Winston Breen author Eric Berlin also noted that Leslie Nielsen’s name was also made up of the letters used in the word SILLINESS. Can’t be a better epitaph than that. (Though I did note, as did Reddit commenter RobAnybody, that the headline Leslie Nielsen’s final film, ‘The Waterman Movie,’ remains in limbo, says the director sparks the following obvious exchange: “Leslie Nielsen’s final film remains in limbo.” “What is it?” “It’s a place where souls go after death, but that’s not important right now.”)
Doubtlessly you’ve been bombarded with the news that the Beatles are now on iTunes, ending a three-decade (!) fight over who got to use the Apple logo. (Answer: Both, when they realized they could make hundreds of millions working together.) The Apples, in stereo, revived one of the greatest legal phrases of all time: “a moron in a hurry.” In a 1978 case in England, Chancery Justice Foster coined this phrase to describe when two items bearing similar names are so different that only a moron in hurry couldn’t tell them apart. In 2003, Apple (the computer people) declared that the Apple (the Beatles people) claim of infringement was so slight that only morons in a hurry couldn’t distinguish the two companies’ offerings, and so the phrase continued into a new millennium.
This was a good week in the NFL for puzzling coincidences: the Colts played the Bolts (a.k.a., the San Diego Chargers); Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel dueled a fellow gunslinger whose name shares 9 of its first 10 letters, Seattle Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck; and Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan saw the game won by his kicker and near namesake Matt Bryant. Thanks also to Decoder Ring reader Dave Noonan for pointing out this incredible Deadspin graphic showing the parity of each NFL team beating another in a ring. Think how important that Cleveland win over New Orleans seems now.
I didn’t think there was much possibility of a headline more bizarre than this year’s Chad Ochocinco’s cereal box features phone-sex hotline and Tila Tequila suffers cuts, but escapes juggalos attack, but Dressed as elf, Yankees GM to rappel 22 stories makes a valid case for it.
This week’s Noodler: No one got last week’s Noodler, so I’ll add a clue to it. I want to know what all of these have in common: the Web, DRM, design, Bionicle, missile defense, the album, the TV, the TiVo box, the Viper, the Police Interceptor, WiFi, eDonkey, and Devo. Here’s the hint: It has to do with how these things were covered in the news. If you’re the first to send what those have in common to decodewired@gmail.com, you’ll be a Ringer too.
Where the geeks are this week: In Daytona Beach, Fl., collecting letters at local businesses in this weekend’s Scramble Ramble puzzle game. Honestly, I have no idea what this event is, but I just wanted an excuse to type the words “Scramble Ramble.”
NaNoWriMi update: Wired‘s National Novel Writing Minute challenge reached the end of its lifecycle for this year, and we’re busily reviewing the entries. More on the results soon!
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.
