far:
Boston Typewriter Orchestra plays against type with their version of the Surfari’s “Wipe Out,” available on Cambridge’s CCTV:

 

That’s noted crossword maker Brendan Emmett Quigley hanging ten at the end.

Things I thought of while roofers pounded on my head this week:

• Unless you happened to be a FOX fan in a Cablevision market, you’ve probably seen this new Volkwagen Jetta commercial, which features Wynn Stewart’s 1962 country lilt, “Another Day, Another Dollar.” I’ve loved this song for years, because it contains a wonderfully subtle pun. Stewart sings, “My boss told me I’d get paid weekly, and that’s exactly how I’m paid.” I’m sure those of us who’ve been paid weakly can take solace in this song.
• Speaking of FOX, they’re apparently still running the series Lie to Me, which started its third season this month. Lie to Me, featuring Tim Roth leading a team of investigators who can sniff out dishonesty, debuted on January 21, 2009, just five days before TNT debuted its series about an ad agency, Trust Me. So within a week, America’s viewers had a choice between similarly titled series, one encouraging honesty and the other encouraging dishonesty. It’s hardly surprising which we chose.
• Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte threw a losing effort against the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship series on Monday. I want one of the lineup cards from that game, to see if somewhere below “Jeter, SS” and “Rodriguez, 3B” it says the palindromic “Pettitte, P” on it.
• Apparently, it’s shocking when someone (in this alleged case, Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee) gets blindingly drunk in a district called Broad Ripple.
• I got lots of good reaction to my interview with Jonathan Coulton about the song “Mandelbrot Set” this week. I did leave out that the song itself is recursive for Mr. Coulton as well. The line we discussed in depth — “Right now he’s still alive and teaching math at Yale” — contains the name of another Coulton song, “Still Alive.” And that song contains the name of another Coulton song, “I Feel Fantastic.” And that song contains the name of another Coulton song, “Better.” I expect Mandelbrot would like that.

This week’s Noodler:
For the GeoCrush geocaching event we’re running, we placed an art-themed geocache at the Centerstage Theatre Arts Conservatory in Federal Way, WA. It’s on the road shown here. If you’re the first to tell me what letter that road represents at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , you’ll be inducted into the Decoder Ring of Honor, just like Michelle Senderhauf was last week. Michelle was the first of many people to write in that the Decoder Ring logo’s particular shade of lavender has the RGB hex value DEC0DE. Will you join her this week?

Where the geeks are this week:
Likely pushing a few puzzle blocks around, and getting trapped in the corner like an idiot. In addition, they’re preparing for the simulcast puzzle event in San Francisco and Seattle called “Ghost Patrol,” part of the long-running BANG (Bay Area Night Game) and SNAP (Seattle and Nearby Adventures in Puzzling). I’ve been on a few of these, and they’re quite fun. So if you’re in those areas, get in the loop.

Mike Selinker is a game and puzzle designer who heads the Seattle-area studio Lone Shark Games. He also writes a blog about non-puzzly stuff called The Most Beautiful Things.

Authors: Mike Selinker

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