Tile A While
Pilgrim's Progress
Meanwhile, back at Boxes and Booze Headquarters … we’re sliding this beauty on over to Dad for some puzzle time. Thomas Cummings is at it again with a new design based on an old classic. Cumming’s clever creations to date have featured many varying styles of puzzle incorporated into the lid of each detailed box. He uses different locking mechanisms and misdirection, and often throws a curve or two into the mix as well. He adorns his boxes with vintage hardware and even vintage coins at times. He enjoys scouring the history books for old ideas he can breathe new life into.
Tile A While by Thomas Cummings
His newest creation, “Tile A While”, is based on the classic sliding tile puzzles patented in the early 1900’s by L.W. Hardy. Hardy’s original design, which requires approximately 62 moves to solve, can be traced back to a 1909 patent. An easier design, patented in 1912, substitutes two smaller square pieces for one of the longer rectangular pieces, and cuts the move count in half. Cummings offers the puzzle in this version, citing the typical modern day attention span, or in the original, more tedious (more fun!) version, which he refers to as the “Meanwhile, Tile A While” version. Who can resist a rhyming puzzle? This classic has been given many names, but the two which seem most familiar are the “Dad’s Puzzle” and the “Pilgrim’s Progress”. I’ve attached a few links to supporting documents at the end, and would be delighted if those with extensive sliding tile puzzle knowledge would add more info and any corrections in the comments.
Dad's gonna love it
Of course, I mentioned that Cummings enjoys the unexpected curve ball in his puzzles, and there is more than meets the eye in this one as well. Maneuvering the pieces properly into position (there are a few clues handy in case it’s not clear what needs to go where) does result in some progress, pilgrim, (and quite a bit of rattling) but like a bad Dad joke, you’re just getting started! Cummings has taken a few of his older ideas and given them a new spin in this puzzle, which is really the best version of all those previous efforts, as nice as they still are. It’s great fun and another winner from Eden Workx.
The Pilgrim Cocktail by Dale DeGroff
To toast this modern retelling of an old classic, I’m doing the same with a perfect potion pairing. Dale DeGroff, often referred to as “King Cocktail” and known as the man who coined the term “mixology”, helmed the bar at New York’s Rainbow Room at the turn of the modern century. He ushered in the cocktail renaissance by reviving lost classics and returning the craft into craft cocktails. Simple touches like freshly squeezed juices were unheard of when he began to insist on them. He put his mark on new creations based on old ideas, like the “Pilgrim Cocktail”.
Three of my favorite bottles
The story goes, back in 1995 at the Rainbow Room, DeGroff had befriended the photo editors from the Associated Press, who worked across the street and would often have lunch at his bar. He came up with this drink one Thanksgiving as a tribute to them. As told by DeGroff’s wife Jill, it was bitter cold that day, so he warmed the cocktail, placed a batch in an insulated coffee pot, and in his distinctive red jacket made his way down from the top of the NBC building, across the crowds in Rockefeller Center to the Associated Press Building, back up the elevator to his friends, all while carrying the pot along with twelve stemmed glasses on a silver tray. Keep in mind this is the most famous bartender in modern history. But of course that sort of thing is what made him famous. Here’s to pilgrim’s progress then and now, far and near, to the old and the new and the best of both. Cheers!
These pilgrims make a fine pair
The Pilgrim’s Cocktail by Dale DeGroff
½ oz dark rum
½ oz light rum
½ oz orange curacao
2 oz fresh orange
½ oz fresh lime
¼ oz Allspice Dram
1 dash Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a favorite glass.
Can be served hot or cold.
For more about Thomas Cummings:
