Season's greetings from the Stanyan Street firehouse!
2025-12-24T13:33:23.726025
A new/old item in my feed reader: After a too-long hiatus, Puzzalot is back!
I'm still catching up, but so far I've read some new-to-me info about west coast puzzle hunts from past decades: details on some puzzles from the Los Angeles Midnight-Madness-inspiring games, the first Bay Area Night Game.
It's already got me thinking. There's a scene in the Midnight Madness movie in which the nepo baby villain team gloats that they will win because their van is equipped with a computer. I scoffed at that scene: computers are bad at solving free-form puzzles, and Midnight Madness is a 1980 movie, back in the days of the Commodore 64 and Apple II. Now that I read about some old Midnight Madness puzzles, though, I see that some of them relied on unscrambling some darned-long anagrams. A reporter mentions that a team spent 20 minutes on a gnarly anagram clue. Slow as they were compared to modern machines, a late-1970s computer with an anagramming program and a fits-on-a-floppy-disk word list could have been a game changer. Maybe I shouldn't have scoffed so loud.
Anyhow, Puzzalot is back; its feed URL has moved so you might not realize (blush) it's been back since August, and you should (re-)subscribe at the new place.
2025-12-23T16:00:03.835152
Some things I saw on my exercise walk yesterday morning.
- I got excited when I saw some paint marks on the road in front of my apartment building: Were we about to get speed bumps? Folks not used to the neighborhood like to speed up the hill, not realizing there's a ridge ahead that blocks their view of cross traffic. Then I saw Ian Brown's video of cars blithely speeding over new speed bumps in his neighborhood. Now I wonder if my road's speed bumps were already put in and I'm looking at 'em.
- A prankster tossed some Golden Mile lawn chairs into Naga's pond. This would have been much funnier if it weren't so danged cold; the reason I got close enough to the pond to spot the chairs was that I wanted to see if it had iced over. Someone had to fish those chairs out, and they had a bad day. Save this prank for the next heat wave, sheesh.
- Some Kal Zakzouk sidewalk chalk art at 20th and Irving, alas pretty scuffed by the time I saw it. An aquatic figure flanked by giant goldfish.
2025-12-14T16:54:40.257653
Book Report: Moonbound
This sci-fantasy novel was a fun read. It faked me out a few times. E.g. for a while, I was pretty sure the title referred to the nursery rhyme about a cow jumping over the moon, but I was pretty far off. Also, I kept thinking "The author thinks he's so clever and insightful, but I already thought about this stuff over a year ago," …and then I remembered that's because I was reading the author's blog back when he was researching the book, so, uhm, yeah, I only thought of putting those things together because the author already nudged me in that direction.2025-12-12T17:32:33.171338
Back in the news. Based on this graffito, I'd say also back in our thoughts.
2025-12-11T15:47:06.112239
I'm still excited that someo∩e solved the St. Louis Octothorpea∩ puzzle, so I wrote a little puzzle to celebrate: St. Louis is famous for somethi∩g. The clues below suggest some words/phrases that also have that thi∩g. Fill i∩ the bla∩ks a∩d the∩ the circled letters should spell out a∩other famous St. Louis dealie.
◯_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / Moth-repelling container
_ _◯_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / Blue wiggly line that appearing under clue this (vs red wiggly line under htis)
_ _ _ _ _ _◯_ / 📊
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _◯_ / Type of word puzzle in which answers go across or clockwise
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _◯'_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / Average time spent commuting each day, about an hour (pretty obscure, follow that link for the answer)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _◯_ / Kinda paper, kinda leather
_ _ _ _ _ _ _◯_ _ _ _ / USA outdoor advertising (i.e. billboard) company
_◯_ _ _ _ _ _ _ / Rule by a few
_ _◯_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / National Farm Workers Association co-founder
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Some hints, rot13'd:
- Gung (bofpher, fbeel!) pbzzhgr gvzr vf Znepurggv'f Pbafgnag
- Fg. Ybhvf vf snzbhf sbe vgf Tngrjnl Nepu. Lbh'er ybbxvat sbe cuenfrf pbagnvavat "nepu", creuncf oebxra hc ol fcnprf.
- Gur oyhr jvttyl yvar vf n tenzzne purpxre
Solution, rot13'd:
Prqne purfg / Zbgu-ercryyvat pbagnvare teNzzne purpxre / Oyhr jvttyl yvar gung nccrnevat haqre pyhr guvf one punEg / 📊 znepuvat onaQf / Glcr bs jbeq chmmyr va juvpu nafjref tb npebff be pybpxjvfr znepurggV'f pbafgnag / cnepuzrAg / Xvaqn cncre, xvaqn yrngure pyrne puNaary / HFN bhgqbbe nqiregvfvat pbzcnal bYvtnepul / Ehyr ol n srj péFne puáirm / Angvbany Snez Jbexref Nffbpvngvba pb-sbhaqre
2025-12-01T16:45:57.110989
Some sidewalk chalk art on the path at the base of Hippie Hill I saw yesterday, alas mostly scuffed by the time I saw it.
2025-12-01T15:52:41.563817
Somebody solved the St Louis #Octothorpean puzzle‽
https://www.octothorpean.org/ has many, many puzzles. Most of those puzzles can be solved on your couch; but some involve observing details about some place or other. To solve one puzzle, you need to see some things in a place in St Louis, Missouri, USA. For years, that puzzle has lurked, unsolved.* Until just over a day ago. Whoever did this: Nice work. You now have bragging rights at the next Puzzled Pint or whatnot.
*OK, someone "solved" it a while back by throwing the dictionary at the answer checker. But that's not so interesting.
2025-11-30T18:09:45.248452
Current status: musing about crane operations on a day when it's too foggy to see the ground, relying on folks on the ground for feedback. I bet crane operators use this in similes for all kinds of situations.
2025-11-25T15:48:55.814317
I saw some sidewalk chalk art walking in #SanFrancisco yesterday morning.
At 20th and Irving, a skateboarding fire-demon-maybe by Kal Zakzouk.
At 4th and Irving, a mermaid by, I'm guessing, two collaborators.
2025-11-24T13:06:12.449252
