Boxes and Booze 10/28/23 Boxes and Booze 10/28/23

The Devil’s Advocate

There’s a chill in the air and the dark creeps in a little sooner, a little longer, stretching the shadows and turning all things spooky.

Boxes and Booze 9/2/23 Boxes and Booze 9/2/23

Animal Cruelty

The story begins in 1975, when the Japanese amusement ride company TOGO released Mogura Taij (Mole Buster), a franticly fun mole smashing game invented by Kazuo Yamada.

Boxes and Booze 1/21/23 Boxes and Booze 1/21/23

Heart of the Matter

The Golem is a pervasive mythical guardian which appears time and again in various fantasy lore, originating with Jewish myth and mysticism.

Boxes and Booze 9/24/22 Boxes and Booze 9/24/22

Keepsake

The Norman invasion of England brought with it an architectural fortification system known as motte-and-bailey, which was fairly simple to construct even for unskilled laborers, while at the same time being militarily effective.

Boxes and Booze 6/11/22 Boxes and Booze 6/11/22

Index Case

An index case, also referred to as “patient zero”, is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study.

Boxes and Booze 12/18/21 Boxes and Booze 12/18/21

Domino Box (Stickman 16)

From the Latin dominus, “master of the house”, we have the English word for an ancient game of tiles that was invented in China sometime in the twelfth century.

Boxes and Booze 7/24/21 Boxes and Booze 7/24/21

Perpetual Hinge

The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can not be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. The second law relates to entropy, stating that any system will move toward a state of disorder. These two laws should suggest that the mythical “perpetual motion machine”, a device that works via its own contained mechanics, forever, is an impossibility.

Boxes and Booze 6/19/21 Boxes and Booze 6/19/21

One Hand Box

Those who follow the works of Robert Yarger, the brilliant puzzle maker behind the Stickman Puzzle Box Company, know that he likes to create new puzzles and explore different genres. He rarely revisits an idea, and when he applies his focus to a new project it becomes extraordinary.

Boxes and Booze 2/27/21 Boxes and Booze 2/27/21

Late for Tea

“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”

Boxes and Booze 5/9/20 Boxes and Booze 5/9/20

Sphere Box (Stickman 18)

Last week I reached a milestone on the blog, five years of weekly boxes and booze pairings. It seemed like a good place to pause for a bit, maybe take a break and turn attentions elsewhere. So of course here I am, rolling right along anyway.

A spirited journey through the world of collectible artisan puzzles