Let the Good Times Roll
Pair O’ Dice
Pair O’ Dice by Tye Stahly
Broadcasting live from Paris, it’s the Boxes and Booze travel edition from your foreign correspondent. I hope you’ll forgive me, but, well … Je suis crevé … and I’m simply going to roll with it. So here’s a quick pairing with a puzzle that’s already paired – how convenient – a pair of dice. Let’s give them a roll.
Tye Die
Pair O’Dice is the brilliant brainchild of Tye Stahly, proprietor at Nothing Yet Designs. Tye had not yet embraced the laser cut acrylic and wood packing puzzle emporium that would become NYD, and was still an enthusiast dabbling in Japanese puzzle boxes, when he and his SO came up with the idea. In Tye’s case, dabbling inevitably led to dabbits, but this was even before that tall tale, which we have already told. Through the desire to create the kind of “sequential discovery” puzzle that he had been craving, full of twists and turns and too many tools, Tye came up with a high rolling winner. The initial idea of, “what can we make out of a die?” led to somewhere between 15 and 20 prototypes and a single die. Further feedback encouraged them to “throw the kitchen sink at it” next. They added a second die, included all manner of mechanisms they enjoyed in general, even more obstacles, and Tye’s “better, more evil half” threw in the big AHA moment.
Pair O’ Dice is much more than meets the eye, packed with surprises, clever mechanisms, and plenty of steps needed to find the treasures hidden inside (the “lucky dice” and the “gold”). The two dice are interactive, interdependent and ingenious. Pick up a pair and let the good times roll.
Paradise by Harry Craddock
Here’s a classic cocktail from the storied pages of Harry Craddock’s swanky Savoy Cocktail book, 1930. It’s a simple recipe combining gin, apricot brandy and orange juice. Most modern recipes recommend the addition of some orange bitters as well. There are a few key rules to follow for a cocktail like this with just a few select ingredients. For the orange juice, fresh squeezed will make all the difference in the world. But the apricot brandy is what will define the drink, and using something too sweet will likely throw off the balance.
Paradise found
The drink also has modern vibes and a Guinness world record. Although the rapper Snoop Dogg admits that his famous “gin and juice” was originally a simpler combination of those two ingredients, when he made the world’s largest gin and juice in 2018, he added apricot brandy. Of course, like many old cocktails, the recipe can get corrupted over time, and I had been using a version that called for apricot liqueur, before I did my research properly. I also used grapefruit juice since I didn’t have orange handy. Ultimately I may have been just shy of paradise, but I don’t think I crapped out. I’m just going to roll with it. Cheers!
this pair of pair o dice paradise pair nice
Paradise by Harry Craddock c. 1930, adapted by D. Wondrich
2 oz gin
1 ½ oz apricot brandy
1 oz orange
½ oz lemon
Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass. Serve straight up (or with a lemon wheel die)