Boxes and Booze 11/2/24 Boxes and Booze 11/2/24

Play the Silver Ball

Matt Williams, a die cast machinist in England with a brilliant knack for creating outstanding mechanical puzzles, loves pinball, and has produced a remarkably puzzling object in Pinball Wizard.

Boxes and Booze 10/26/24 Boxes and Booze 10/26/24

Boxes and Boos

Spooky season is upon us again! I love a well themed offering for both the Boxes and the Booze so I’m getting in the scary spirit and breaking out the scary spirits.

Boxes and Booze 10/19/24 Boxes and Booze 10/19/24

Fundamental Lee

Boxes and Booze 10/12/24 Boxes and Booze 10/12/24

Young at Heart

There’s always something abuzz at an International Puzzle Party (IPP), which often has to do with, no surprise, an interesting puzzle, perhaps spied passing hands here and there, and utterly unfamiliar.

Boxes and Booze 10/5/24 Boxes and Booze 10/5/24

Military Brass

Who Dares Wins is a British television show named after the SAS (Special Air Squadron) motto. It is also now a collaborative puzzle lock box from a bunch of brilliant Dare Devils....

Boxes and Booze 9/28/24 Boxes and Booze 9/28/24

Batter Up

There is a controversial Indian folk tale from 1899 that has been beloved by generations of children around the world.

Boxes and Booze 9/21/24 Boxes and Booze 9/21/24

There and Back Again

I’m celebrating Hobbit Day with the perfect puzzle. Hobbits are well known to prize their pantries, which are full of palatable provisions and delectable vittles. Surely a Hobbit would absolutely love a puzzle box shaped like a petit four cake, as long as he didn’t attempt to eat it for elevenses.

Boxes and Booze 9/14/24 Boxes and Booze 9/14/24

Golden Ticket

I recently received a mysterious package. The return label identified the sender as “The Source”. I suspect it may have come from the CIA, as the address listed Arlington, Virginia. It was also not addressed to me, but rather one “WSW” ...

Boxes and Booze 9/7/24 Boxes and Booze 9/7/24

Cover to Cover

September 6 was National Read a Book Day, which is celebrated like a National Holiday at Boxes and Booze headquarters. This is because at B&B we love books as much as we love boxes. And booze.

Boxes and Booze 8/31/24 Boxes and Booze 8/31/24

He Who Hesitates

Kyle Chester and his Grandfather Steven have produced another beautiful puzzle box in their English workshop, but I’ve been hesitating to talk about it. I've been stalling, resistant, unwilling, and ... reluctant.

Boxes and Booze 8/24/24 Boxes and Booze 8/24/24

Ménage à Trois

Joe Turner is getting frisky. The newest numerical addition to his ever expanding “free the coin” series of puzzles showcases his development as a woodworker and puzzlemaker over the many years that he has been honing these skills.

Boxes and Booze 8/17/24 Boxes and Booze 8/17/24

Closed Circle

Dee Dixon's latest foray into the circular format, which began with the Bad Moon rising, and came full circle with the uplifting Uplift, has got some dizzying antics sure to give you Vertigo.

Boxes and Booze 8/10/24 Boxes and Booze 8/10/24

One Thing or an Otter

Otters are “semi-aquatic” mammals who live on coastlines, riverbank, lakes and oceans, eating fish and being generally playful and cute. They are also somewhat notorious for the lovely scent they deposit along their territorial habitats.

Boxes and Booze 8/3/24 Boxes and Booze 8/3/24

Hip Hip Hooray

There’s always cause for celebration when Janichi “Juno” Yananose announces a new puzzle box or sequential discovery design.

Boxes and Booze 7/27/24 Boxes and Booze 7/27/24

At Your Pleasure

In March of 1882, construction began on what would become the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world, the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família.

Boxes and Booze 7/20/24 Boxes and Booze 7/20/24

Happy Hour

Puzzle historians will be well familiar with the works of Angelo John Lewis, an English lawyer and avid magician, who catalogued a compendium of puzzles of the Victorian era.

Boxes and Booze 7/13/24 Boxes and Booze 7/13/24

On the Record

Franz Rudolph Wurlitzer was a German immigrant to the United States who started a music company in 1853 based out of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Boxes and Booze 7/6/24 Boxes and Booze 7/6/24

Party Pooper

Whilemina the Wombat is an adorable marsupial made from rare Queensland Walnut, an indigenous Australian wood which is no longer commercially available. Produced in 2008, the puzzle combines elements of a high-level interlocking burr type puzzle with hidden mechanism sequential discovery tools.

Boxes and Booze 6/29/24 Boxes and Booze 6/29/24

Elementary

The game is afoot again at Cabal Manor, in Victorian era England, where noted naturalist and collector Sir Charles Allen resided, up until quite recently, that is. Mystery and intrigue abound here, along with a colorful cast of characters who are joined, naturally, by the world’s foremost consulting detective.

Boxes and Booze 6/22/24 Boxes and Booze 6/22/24

Going crazy

We head back to Tel Aviv to visit our friend Boaz Feldman, Israeli puzzle maker and heir to the Feldman lock legacy.

A spirited journey through the world of collectible artisan puzzles