Tooth Fairy

Incisors, canines, premolars or molars, pick your favorite out of thirty two choices. If you are like me, and most folks in the United States, you no longer have the smart option, because your wisdom teeth have been removed. I think that explains a lot about us, hmmm? At least that’s my excuse when I can’t solve a puzzle. No matter, our friendly neighborhood drill sergeant down under has provided the best choice of all, a tooth to be enameled of, er, enamored of over all the others.

Dr. Stephen Chin has done it again, and at long last produced a puzzle box worthy of his profession. Dr. Chin has had a long career in Australia as a dentist, but he is better known in the mechanical puzzle world for his consummate skill as a wood turner. His award winning spherical creations and self-standing tippee tops are legendary.

His “hand-chased threads” rival the best in history and are worthy of his hero, John Berkeley, the puzzle maestro of the lathe. Hand turned puzzles herald back to Professor Hoffman, whose vintage tome, Puzzles Old and New, 1893, remains the standard to this day. (Fans of Neil Gaiman may have caught the new season of Amazon’s Good Omens, where one of the main characters, the angel Aziraphale, who owns a rare bookshop (a nice profession if you’ve been around since the dawn of time), learns a bit of magic from one of the Professor’s other books, Modern Magic, 1876. I digress.)

Yet Dr. Chin had never made a tooth-themed puzzle, despite his professional calling. And it looked like he never would, since he officially “retired” from puzzle making last year. Alas, Dr. Chin cannot be trusted. He is far too creative and likes to tinker. After all these years, he bought himself a little bandsaw for his workshop, and began to experiment.

“For 10 years I have wanted to make a tooth puzzlebox for my colleagues and puzzle friends. My legacy I leave behind, before I retire. Wouldn't that be nice. Just didn't know how. Until I started making bandsaw boxes in Jan 2023. Made an apple with a heart drawer,,,, hey maybe I can make a tooth with a heart drawer,,,,, "Evolution " took over, and hence ze Tooth Fairy box was born. 6 months later I reached Nirvana making them. Making bandsaw boxes, its 20% make and 80% sanding.”

A Chin puzzle almost always has a little something extra, if you can find it. The good doktor gigi loves to make spinning tops, and whistles, and if you look carefully, many of his puzzles have a top, or a whistle, or even both, hiding in some part of the puzzle, or in plain sight. He always likes to leave a little treasure to find, like a piece of candy, or a victory coin. And he often adds a bit of whimsey to be discovered, such as a mini figurine hidden inside, or even electronic lights and music that play when the puzzle is solved. In the Tooth Fairy, there are a few of these extra bonuses waiting to be found, and there’s even a pair of dentures that glow in the dark!

The tooth itself is also rather special, crafted with the anatomic precision that only a true dentist would demand. Look closely at the crown and you will see a deliberate pattern. “Interesting ‘Y’ pattern on the tooth surface. Homosapiens have it, also Orang Hutans (malay for man from jungle) gorillas and chimpanzees too. Neanderthals have a + pattern, monkeys too. I believe Neanderthals assimilate with us and eventually died out. Evolutionarily, we came from the same tree and then we branched out. Hmmmm ,,,, God made man and he made the apes to look like man. Have to cover my butt, both ways. Of course, you knew that already. And ya, its the lower right 1st molar, you smart cookie.”

The Tooth Fairy was very well received at the 2023 International Puzzle Design Competition, where it won a Top Ten award. In fact this is Dr. Chin’s fifth Top Ten! Past hits have included the Ringo Pinko Exploding Icosa Apple, Ze Drunken Dancing Fraulein, Ze House of Mouse Duong, and Corvi 2020. “O what fun, maybe it’s the captured Mona Lisa smile that glows in the dark, the whistle and the final mechanism where you do Root Canal surgery to open. Final move is a doozy, took me 3 weeks to perfect. Simple mechanism, not so simple making it work.

It’s my last puzzle box, a legacy I leave for my puzzle friends and dental mates. 10 moves to open, 11 if you drop it. Ya, a fun logical sequential discovery opening box, and when solved, it puts a Smile on your face, mission accomplished. Classic Chinnomotto. And getting Top 10 at IPPDC this year, Heavenly,,,,its my 5th Top 10, woo hoo. Very very lucky and honoured and humbled. Thanks to the guests there, they like my puzzlebox and gave me their vote. Going to the Dentist will never be the same again”

I’m toasting this Tooth Fairy with a great big smile that shows off my pair of teeth with a cocktail that’s designed to make you show yours too. London bartender Andy Mill created this clever potion at the Cocktail Trading Co. in 2016. The original drink, which is meant to be tongue in cheek, features a pair of chocolate candy dentures floating in the glass like the ones on your bedside table … .

Potent pisco, the Peruvian grape brandy, is tempered by a delicious cardamom and pear shrub that Mills makes in house using a Gewurztraminer wine base, pear, vanilla, cardamom, sugar and white balsamic vinegar. It sounds incredible. I leaned on another incredible spirit, St. George distillery’s spiced pear liqueur, which is heavenly at this time of year, and added it two to one to the vinegar to make my own similar shrub. The two ingredients then get balanced by a little more white wine, using prosecco that has gone flat. I didn’t go all out on the candy dentures, but I did make a white chocolate tooth from a silicone mold, so that’s something to smile about. Here’s to losing your teeth, and finding some puzzling good wishes under your pillow. Cheers!

Apairoteef by Andy Mill

1 oz pisco

1 oz spiced pear shrub

1 oz sparkling wine, flat

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Swipe a lemon peel over the glass and garnish with a pair of confectionary chocolate dentures.

explore more: