Humpty Egg

You Must be Yolking

Like many modern iterations of ancient religious holidays, Easter has a prominent symbol that is borrowed from another culture. Now don’t throw rotten eggs at me for saying so, but the egg, an obvious symbol of fertility and birth, was associated with Pagan festivals in celebration of spring well before it symbolized the resurrection of Jesus. Indeed, it has been suggested that the name Easter is itself derived from the Pagan fertility goddess Eostre – at least, according the Saint Bede the Venerable, a Benedictine monk considered to be one of the greatest scholars of the early Middle Ages. On the other hand, he is the only one to have ever drawn that conclusion, so who knows. Perhaps there is another culture at the symbol’s origins. The Zoroastrians, from ancient Mesopotamia, used colorfully painted eggs for thousands of years to celebrate their New Year, the festival Nowruz, which falls on the Spring Equinox and predates the advent of Christianity.

Humpty Egg by Stephen Chin

Let’s not forget, or overlook, another holiday that is also celebrated this time of year, which includes an egg as an important symbol. While “Easter” may be the more recognizable name derived from Anglo-Germanic origins, in most other languages that holiday’s name derives from the Latin “Pasch” (such as Spain’s “Pascua”), which means, Passover. On Passover, which coincides with Easter, an egg is one of the essential items placed on the Seder plate, and carries the symbolism of the cycle of life and renewal. There are many other interpretations of its meaning in addition. It may symbolize a sacrificial offering, or serve as a reminder of destruction, or even be present purely as a unit of measurement! Something the two holidays have in common is the eating. Easter falls at the end of Lent, during which eggs were traditionally not eaten. They were saved, perhaps decorated, to be finally enjoyed when Lent concluded at Easter. Similarly, eating the Passover egg traditionally marks the conclusion of the main Seder ceremony during which the story is retold, and the start of the meal.

What better time then, in which to celebrate an egg puzzle with a storied provenance. And not just any old egg puzzle, I might add, but a very special one that has many layers of stories to tell. Let’s start simply, by mentioning the fact that the talented Dr. Stephen Chin, diabolical dentist by day and wily woodturner by weekend, is rather fond of making puzzle eggs. He owes a debt, of course, to the original puzzle egg maker, Akio Kamei, whose landmark egg puzzle I have featured here in the past. Chin has turned countless varieties of eggs on his lathe, with many, many different internal mechanisms keeping them locked secretly shut. Some require a well placed smack to crack them open, and Chin likes to add jagged edges on his eggs to enhance the effect. Some must be balanced on end, somehow; some employ properties of physics; and some must be spun, just so.

This egg cracks me up

Another layer to the story here involves the brilliant woodworker, machinist, mathematician and sailor Lee Krasnow. Lee is a reclusive artistic genius whose precision with woodcraft is legendary. He invented a uniquely functioning six piece interlocking “burr” puzzle which takes the form of a cube, and behaves based on binary movement of the six identical pieces. The cube was made from beautifully contrasting ebony and maple woods, which wove a striking pattern all about the surfaces, and led Krasnow to name the cube the “Barcode Burr”. Real barcodes also function via a binary system. By creating maze like grooves in each piece, and embedding little metal pins in the pieces which ride in these grooves, he created a system that only allows a certain piece to move in sequence at any time, linked to the movements of other pieces. Following the binary path for all six pieces (1-2-1-3-1-2-1-4-1-2-1-3-1-2-1-5-1-2-1-3-1-2-1-4-1-2-1-3-1-2-1-6) requires 32 moves just to extend the sixth piece, and another 32 moves in reverse will finally allow that piece to be removed completely. The remaining five pieces are then still fully fused, and the sequences must be continued, with diminishing moves, for each remaining piece. In 2004 it won an honorable mention in the International Puzzle Design Competition, and it has since become one of the rarest and most sought after puzzles of all time.

Gonna need all the King's horses and all the King's men here

Because of the complex architecture of the identical pieces that form the Barcode Burr, it should be impossible to replicate the structure as a sphere. This is because turning it on a lathe will erase certain structural components and undercuts, and it will all explode or collapse. Enter Stephen Chin’s particular form of genius. After obtaining permission from Lee Krasnow, Chin reverse engineered the Barcode Burr in 2016 and devised a way to successfully create it in the form of a sphere, by truncating certain parts (reducing the edges), imagining the sphere shape, and then adding additional pieces back again in stellation. I don’t pretend to understand the process, but it worked. Chin relates that the original, which required roughly 60 separate pieces of wood to create, became even more complicated, requiring approximately 100 individual pieces of wood for the spherical version. In addition to a ball, Chin, who is from Australia, also created the adorable “Ze Koala”, a spherical barcode burr which looks like a Koala wearing a little hat and sticking his tongue out at you. Inside, Chin hid little bits of odd objects the koala had “eaten”, and some typical electronic lights and sounds he is fond of including in his puzzles for fun. Around the same time he was participating in the long anticipated and indefinitely postponed Jabberwocky Chest collaboration, in which various puzzle artists created an “Alice in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass” themed contribution. Naturally, and now bringing this story to its roundabout conclusion, Chin selected the egg as his muse for that project, and added another shape to his barcode series. Set inside one of the pieces he hid a special token, so like a real egg, there's treasure inside (and it's technically a puzzle box!)

You may recall that Humpty Dumpty featured prominently in Through the Looking Glass. As he sits on his wall, Alice has a long and surreal conversation with him, during which she accidentally insults him, they discuss his un-birthday present, and they recite many odd poems and couplets such as “In spring, when woods are getting green, I'll try and tell you what I mean”. I wonder what Humpty might have thought about having himself turned into an impossible to create barrcode burr egg. I’m sure it would not have been good.

Vanilla Bourbon Egg Cream

Now, what shall we toast this fine fellow with, to continue this el-egg-ant theme. How about something a bit nostalgic for an older time, the classic Egg Cream. This mysterious concoction, which historically contained neither egg nor cream, is forever tied to New York City, and Brooklyn in particular, where it was a staple of drug store soda parlors everywhere in the early twentieth century. Classically made with milk, soda water, and chocolate syrup (particularly “Fox’s U-Bet”), it was like a fizzy chocolate milk. The defining feature was the foamy head on top, which had to be slurped up quickly before it wilted. One story suggests it was introduced in the 1880’s, modeled after a similar French creation, the chocolat et crème, which may have led to the mistaken identity. More likely is that it was invented, or at least perfected, by a candy store owner in Brooklyn, 1900, named Louis Auster. His bake shop became famous for the drink, and taxi cab drivers from all over the city would bring tourists there for a real “taste of New York”. We will probably never know the true ingredients of that original Egg Cream, because Auster took the secret recipe with him to his grave.

It's eggstremely tasty

If you’ve never had one, you must try a traditional egg cream for yourself. A good formula is to add about ½ inch of cold, whole milk to a soda glass (the fancier the better!). Fill the glass with seltzer or club soda to within an inch of the top and stir with a long spoon. This should create a nice bubbly head of foam on top. Now gently pour about two tablespoons of chocolate syrup down the inside of the glass so it settles at the bottom. Stir gently down low, just enough, so the bottom turns brown and gradually lightens to a white foam top. But of course, let’s do something extra decadent for this special feature. Here’s a recipe for a vanilla egg cream from San Francisco’s Ice Cream Bar that adds both egg and cream to the drink – it’s unheard of! But it’s oh so good. And naturally, I’ve added a little bourbon to this drink, which goes so nicely with the vanilla, as a little extra treat. Just leave it out if you prefer, but definitely treat yourself to one of these variations. You deserve it! Happy Holidays to everyone. Cheers.

An eggceptional pair

Vanilla Bourbon Egg Cream adapted from Ice Cream Bar

1 large egg yolk (pasteurized if preferred)

1 oz bourbon

½ oz heavy cream

2 oz turbinado syrup (1:1 turbinado sugar:water)

2 dashes vanilla extract

Chilled soda water

Shake all ingredient except soda together with ice and strain into a festive tall glass. Add soda on top until foam is over the top. Enjoy!

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