To signify this momentous (A decade! More than 500 boxes! More than 500 cocktails!) occasion in a meaningful way, I’m marking the time with a beautiful piece from my friend Bill Sheckels. The piece was itself a long time coming.

Our man in Hungary, Tamas Vanyo, has of late been dabbling in both puzzle boxes (a relatively new area of exploration for him) and AI (something he has been fascinated with for a long time).

It’s that time of year again, when we all get to reminisce about a year gone by, and contemplate what’s next on the horizon, if we are lucky and fortunate to still be here.

Jesse Born and Robert Yarger, two of the world’s best puzzle box artists, have created a modern masterpiece of mechanical secrets.

“There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet”

Reflecting on time has been a preoccupation since at least the ancient Greeks, whose original god of time, Chronos, personified the concept.

Who doesn’t love a confusingly eccentric Time Lord who goes around saving the world? Dr. Who (his real name is exceedingly hard to pronounce) originally premiered on November 23, 1963 starring English character actor William Hartnell, who would go on to be known as the First Doctor.

“Time is an illusion” – Albert Einstein.  I might add that all good illusions could be considered puzzles, and derive that time is a puzzle.  Which is quite literally true this time.

Today I am thinking fondly of our friends across the pond for a double dose of British themed entertainment. One of the greatest sequential discovery puzzles of all time, and certainly one of my personal favorites, is the Big Ben puzzle.