Friday, December 30, 2016

Messing with Time

A few photos of the Gates of Time in various stages of discovery

The Gate is open
It's always 5 o'clock somewhere ...

The maker's mark

The gears have been stripped ...

Some bits and pieces from the solve - 36 moves to the treasure

Monday, September 19, 2016

Ahoy Mateys - The Pirate Translator

Bung your eye – drink a dram until your eye is bunged up
Death’s head upon a mop stick – to look awful
Dowse on the chops – punch in the face
Eternity box – coffin
Flummery – mush of oatmeal, or useless compliments
Flush in the pocket – full of money
Frummagemmed - Choked, strangled, suffocated, or hanged
Guzzle guts – drunkard
Heart’s ease – gin
Higgledy piggledy – mixed up, confused
Hobbledygee - A pace between a walk and a run, a dog-trot
Hood-winked
Huckle My Buff - Beer, egg, and brandy, made hot. (like flip)
Jackanapes – ugly apish fellow
Keelhauled – dragged under the keel (punished)
Odd-come-shortlys - I’ll do it one of these odd-come-shortly’s; I will do it some time or another.
Oliver’s scull – a chamber pot
Owl in an ivy bush – frazzled hair (wig), insult
Picaroon – scoundrel
Prittle-prattle – insignificant talk
Quick and nimble – insult of the opposite
Quirks and Quillets – tricks and devices
Ragamuffin - A ragged fellow, one all in tatters, a tatterdemalion
Ribaldry – vulgar talk
Rum – fine, good
Rum bluffer – jolly host
Scragged – hanged
Sluice your gob – take a hearty drink
Sly boots – a cunning fellow
Bamboozle – to fool, to trick
To feather one’s nest – to enrich oneself
Spiflicate – confound
Wry Neck Day – hanging day
Carouser, rapscallion, scallywag, Admiral of the Black, scourge of the seven seas – insulting terms
Hearties – endearing term
Kill devil, Nelson’s folly  - rum
Give no quarter – never yield
Hang the jib – act sad, frown
Loaded to the gunwalls – drunk
Motherload – booty
Run a rig – play a trick
Scuttlebutt – gossip
Splice the main brace – have a drink or few
Squiffy – drunk

Weigh anchor – leave port, set sail

All definitions taken from The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose circa 1811 and compiled and edited on the official Talk Like a Pirate site:

Friday, May 6, 2016

Saturday, April 16, 2016

How? Box Locks!

The impressive, massive lock inside the How? Box is hard to fathom from the wooden exterior.  How? in the world do you unlock it?


Saturday, March 5, 2016

A Man's Got To Go ... Solve Puzzles?

The initial puzzle lock, picked

The lower compartment holds a jumble of odd pieces

Secrets revealed

The figurines assembled.  A Man, and Woman, apparently have Got To Go ... a do what?

Photographs of the original figurine made by her father long ago

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Stickman No 5 Instruction Booklet

For anyone with a Shapeways copy who may need this or if you are simply interested:




















Saturday, January 9, 2016

The Borg Deconstruction

A few photos of the complete disassembly.  Each side panel is artistically patterned and designed for the pieces to slide snugly together in various ways, some of which are quite satisfying, and even a little difficult to spot.  Each has a retaining mechanism which holds it all together.  The pieces and sides are almost identical in pairs from the top and bottom, the front and back, and right and left, but there are unique features which, if mixed up, can impede reconstruction.  I took everything apart, but left it fairly well organized as you can see.  I'm not completely Puzzlemad, so did not feel the need to scramble it all up and kiss this incredible box goodbye! Instead I got it all back together quite nicely. Borg conquered!









80 pieces in total: 13 per front and back, 18 per top and bottom, and 9 per side