PoopLock P1

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery. If that’s true, the brilliant German lock designer Rainer Popp ought to be smiling, even if this particular flattery smells a little funny. Popp’s bespoke puzzle locks are considered by many to be the best in the world and are highly coveted, complex mechanical engineering marvels. You’ve got to admit, his current admirer, Mickael Simonetto, has got a great sense of humor. He put a huge amount of effort into his tribute, and has every right to be … pooped out. But his energetic videos suggest otherwise and that’s good news, because he designs great puzzles too.

Mickael is the host and originator of “Beats and Pieces”, a video blog about mechanical puzzles in which he showcases his love of this hobby, interviews puzzle makers, and hosts a difficult quiz challenge that tests your puzzling knowledge. He is originally from Toulouse in the South of France, and now lives in Cambridge, England, where he works as an aeronautical design engineer creating repair solutions for military aircraft. It should not come as much of a surprise that he enjoys solving mechanical puzzles, and that, as it turns out, he is also very good at creating them. He has enjoyed puzzling since he was a teenager, and mentions that his favorite type of puzzle is the sequential discovery, a very popular genre. The wonderful “Turtle Trip” is one of his favorites, and the original Mr. Puzzle himself, Brian Young of Australia, is one of his favorite designers. He made a nice video about himself you can watch here.

In 2021, Mickael participated in the annual “secret santa” event held by the international “Mechanical Puzzle Discord”, and was secretly assigned to send a puzzle to Lewis Evans, maker of the incredible Triple Yolk puzzle. Mickael had heard that Lewis loved Popp Locks, the pinnacle of puzzle locks mentioned earlier by Rainer Popp. It’s unlikely anyone is going to gift a Popp Lock for the secret santa event (they are extremely hard to come by and a bit over budget), but it gave Mickael an idea. He would create a unique gift as a parody, which ultimately became something incredible as well. Mickael purchased a 3D printer, learned how to use it, and designed an impressively complex and fun puzzle box fashioned like a giant lock, all in a few short weeks. You can watch his joyful video of the process here. He ran with the Christmas theme and claimed that the puzzle had been made by the famous lock designer “Reindeer Poop”, whose cartoon likeness can be found etched on the side of the puzzle. Rainer Popp also famously names his lock designs numerically with the letter “T” (for “trick”: T1, T2, etc), so of course, this parody had to be the “P1”. Mickael very cleverly incorporated his own initial into the P1 design, which can be seen on the key itself, so that it looks like the letter “M”. The Poop Lock P1 is a wonderful sequential discovery puzzle full of surprising and well hidden steps and mechanisms which left me feeling rather constipated for much longer than I expected! Mickael improved upon the original design he made for Lewis with some ideas and additions Lewis suggested, and set about making a limited run of the puzzle over the past year. With Mickael’s professional pedigree it is no wonder that Poop Lock is very far from a piece of sh** - no, it’s a fantastic puzzle, and it honestly scares the cr** out of me to imagine what he can design next, with plenty of time on his side. He admits that trouble shooting 3D printing problems was a “nightmare”, but he is nevertheless hard at work on his next puzzle design and says, “I am working on something very special that has a lot of sentimental values for me. I hope to share some information once the first prototype is ready.”

To toast this excellently irreverent creation I am offering up an equally sh**** cocktail. The Poo Driver is the delightfully deranged invention of Shaina Loew-Banyan, chef and owner of Cafe Mutton in Hudson, New York, one of Bon Appetite’s top ten new restaurants of the 2022. Loew-Banyan is also the author of “Elegy for an Appetite”, which chronicles a fifteen year journey as a chef with an eating disorder in a madcap stream of consciousness of many bite-sized chapters.

For Cafe Mutton’s new brunch menu, Loew-Banyan wanted to offer an interesting cocktail. The epiphany for what is now an incredibly popular cult hit at the restaurant occurred this way: “What happens, say, when you are just bored and possibly a little constipated? Which is to say: American?” What, exactly, was not clear, but it was certainly not going to be the hackneyed mimosa. That combination of orange and champagne brought to mind another such mixture, orange juice and vodka, the “screwdriver”. “And then, from the depraved depths of my being, came a quiet but clear whisper: Poo Driver.” Loew-Banyan’s drink is a “banger”, mixing naturally sweet prune juice (“laxative god-nectar”) with bright lemon and bracingly bitter Fernet-Branca. There’s vodka in there too, as homage to the inspiration and, let’s be honest, to make it all worthwhile. The drink is very tasty, a testament to the inventor’s skill and its popularity, balancing and altering the prominent prune into something rather delicious. But I wouldn’t advise ordering more than one per meal – there’s a long line at the loo. Cheers!

Poo Driver by Shaina Loew-Banayan

2 ½ oz prune juice (I used 2 oz)

1 ½ oz lemon (I used 1oz)

1 oz vodka

1 tsp Fernet Branca (I used ¼ oz)

Pinch of kosher salt

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass. Lemon twist garnish. Loew-Banayan offers some advice for imbibing the cocktail as well: “Do not be afraid”.

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