• 100th Post!

    Updated: 2010-06-30 00:20:00
    : skip to main skip to sidebar Brian's Damn Puzzle Blog A chronicle of my descent into the realm of the . puzzle-obsessed June 29, 2010 100th Post Whew , that's a lot of posts Thanks to everybody who has been reading this over the past year I couldn't have kept it up without all your positive feedback . nbsp I've had a great time writing and look forward to plenty more puzzling adventures in the future . Since I'm a numbers guy , here's some : statistics Pages : 260 Words : 76,634 Paragraphs : 830 Sentences : 4,010 Flesch Reading Ease 70.4 Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 8.0 Page Loads : 29,426 712 per week Unique Visitors : 17,191 416 per week It as been very cool seeing folks visiting from all around the globe . Since I've started , there have been visitors from 104 countries from Argentina

  • NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 27, 2010): English Composer and American Writer

    Updated: 2010-06-27 16:07:00
    : Blaine's Puzzle Blog Weekly discussion on the NPR puzzler , Sudoku variations and . more Sunday , June 27, 2010 NPR Sunday Puzzle Jun 27, 2010 English Composer and American Writer NPR Sunday Puzzle Jun 27, 2010 English Composer and American Writer Q : Name a famous English composer with two vowels in his last name . Interchange the vowels and you'll get the last name of a famous American writer . Who are these two people I made a large mistake in assuming the first names had to be the same . I made the puzzle harder than it had to be which I guess is the story of my . life Posted by Blaine at 8:07 AM Labels : lists npr 3 comments : Blaine said . Here's my standard reminder . don't post the answer or any outright spoilers before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET . If you know the answer

  • Stanley Puzzle

    Updated: 2010-06-25 00:00:00
    : skip to main skip to sidebar Brian's Damn Puzzle Blog A chronicle of my descent into the realm of the . puzzle-obsessed June 24, 2010 Stanley Puzzle Fellow renegade puzzler Peter Wiltshire , found The Stanley Puzzle in Hoffman's Puzzles Old And New , a book published in 1893 that catalogues most of the puzzles available in the 1890's in London . Peter made himself a copy , which he brought to IPP29, and at the urging of a few interested collectors , decided to make a few more . In all , he made 7, one of which I purchased from him on PuzzleParadise Here is the entry in Hoffman which describes the puzzle . It was stamped from brass and bears the picture of Sir Henry Morton Stanley known for his exploration of Africa . He also supposedly uttered the famous phrase Dr . Livingstone , I

  • Octagon Box

    Updated: 2010-06-21 23:51:00
    : skip to main skip to sidebar Brian's Damn Puzzle Blog A chronicle of my descent into the realm of the . puzzle-obsessed June 21, 2010 Octagon Box I recently purchased Octagon Box from the last CubicDissection auction . It is a Bits and Pieces reproduction of Pile of Disks by Akio Kamei . I had seen it before on Rob Puzzle Page where he lists the many Bits and Pieces boxes he has purchased over the years . He said this was one of his favorites , so I was happy to see that Eric was selling it . nbsp Jeff also did an entry about this . puzzle There were a few cosmetic issues , so I got a pretty good deal on it . Two of the joints are separating a bit , and it has a few dings on the top . Still , the mechanism works quite well , so I'm quite happy with it . Photo by Eric . Fuller Visually ,

  • NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 20, 2010): Fathers' Day trip to the Hardware Store

    Updated: 2010-06-21 06:07:56
    : Blaine's Puzzle Blog Weekly discussion on the NPR puzzler , Sudoku variations and . more Sunday , June 20, 2010 NPR Sunday Puzzle Jun 20, 2010 Fathers' Day trip to the Hardware Store NPR Sunday Puzzle Jun 20, 2010 Fathers' Day trip to the Hardware Store Q : Think of a product for sale at a hardware store . It's a generic two-word name . Replace the first letter of the first word with an S , and replace the first two letters of the second word with an S , and the result will be two new words that are opposites . What are they Hints : Black Turtleneck or Black Lady Posted by Blaine at 7:08 AM Labels : antonyms lists npr patterns 10 comments : Blaine said . Here's my standard reminder . don't post the answer or any outright spoilers before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET . If you know

  • Twist the Night Away

    Updated: 2010-06-16 00:13:00
    : skip to main skip to sidebar Brian's Damn Puzzle Blog A chronicle of my descent into the realm of the . puzzle-obsessed June 15, 2010 Twist the Night Away Back when I was looking for interesting puzzles to build out of my LiveCubes I stumbled across Twist the Night Away in this thread on the Puzzle World Forums It is a 4x4x4 cube designed by Tom Jolly that requires 7 rotational moves to disassemble , which is quite . remarkable Usually I'm not too keen on purchasing puzzles that I can build fairly easily with LiveCubes , but Eric Fuller was selling a wooden version for a very reasonable 40, so I decided to pick one . up I loved Eric's description of this : puzzle I was showing various puzzles to an IPP attendee when they skipped right over this one . I started to show it to them and they

  • NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 13, 2010): One of these things is not like the others

    Updated: 2010-06-14 04:06:20
    : Blaine's Puzzle Blog Weekly discussion on the NPR puzzler , Sudoku variations and . more Sunday , June 13, 2010 NPR Sunday Puzzle Jun 13, 2010 One of these things is not like the others NPR Sunday Puzzle Jun 13, 2010 One of these things is not like the others Q : Write down the following five names : Christian Dior , Anne Boleyn , Edna Ferber , Indiana Jones and Richard Simmons . The first four names have something unusual in common that the fifth name does not . What is it Give another name that shares this property . Hint : It's a property that only a few names have . To show that you have the right answer , think of another name that shares the same property . Any name that shares the property will be considered . correct 183 kg cat Posted by Blaine at 12:25 AM Labels : names npr

  • NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 6, 2010): One Swell Foop

    Updated: 2010-06-07 00:36:44
    : Blaine's Puzzle Blog Weekly discussion on the NPR puzzler , Sudoku variations and . more Sunday , June 06, 2010 NPR Sunday Puzzle Jun 6, 2010 One Swell Foop NPR Sunday Puzzle Jun 6, 2010 One Swell Foop Q : A spoonerism' is when you interchange the initial consonant sounds of two words to get two new words . For example , with right lane , you'd get light rain . Think of a familiar two-word phrase that's an instruction seen on many containers . Spoonerize' it to name two things seen at the beach . What's the phrase and what are the things I'm not happy with my current answer . Phonetically I have a problem with the sound on one of my words , so I'm hoping that perhaps there is a better . answer Posted by Blaine at 9:37 AM Labels : npr patterns sounds 12 comments : Blaine said . Here's my

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