Self-Seeking

kalogeropoulos fraction

From reader Giorgos Kalogeropoulos:

“This continued fraction converges to a constant and this constant is the terms of the continued fraction concatenated.”

Constant: 1.329571098921067061816694798131449807696979288539287861665690554139889293716015345375844973593801890…

Terms: 1, 3, 29, 5, 710, 9, 8, 92, 10, 6, 70, 61, 81, 66, 94, 7, 98, 13, 14, 4, 980, 76, 96, 97, 928, 85, 39, 2, 87, 86, 16, 65, 690, 55, 41, 398, 89, 293, 71, 60, 15, 34, 53, 75, 84, 49, 73, 59, 380, 18, 90…

“This is the lexicographically earliest sequence starting with {1,3…}.”

(Thanks, Giorgos.)

Ah

A reader nicknamed MANX submitted this poser to The Enigma, the magazine of the National Puzzlers’ League, in September 1985.

The letters in BENEATH CHOPIN can be rearranged into a fitting three-word phrase of 3, 5, and 5 letters. What is it?

Click for Answer

Food for Thought

A selection of topics considered by the Athenian Society, a learned organization established in 1691 to answer “all the most nice and curious questions proposed by the ingenious of either sex”:

Bashfulness, why in Women more than Men?
Books least known to those that need ’em
Bath-waters, what makes ’em hot?
Dials, Clocks and Watches, when first made?
Eunuch, whether ever in Love?
Greenland, how should a Tree come there?
Hedg-hogs, how are they propagated?
Head or Feet, which Travels most?
Knowledge of Men or Things, which best?
Kissing, is there any Pleasure in it?
Love, its discovery
Lady, whether she may marry herself?
Love after Marriage, whether as great as before?
Matter, whether infinitely divisible or no?
Memory, how shall I strengthen it?
Nettle, how does it sting?
Original copy of the Bible, how proved?
Offence committed, which was the first?
Pre-existence of the Soul, how is it?
Rain-bow, its Cause
Socrates, did he wisely in bearing the Clamours of his Wife?
Vow never to Marry, whether I may break it?
Vows made to a Lady, whether binding?
Virginity or Marriage, which best?
Women, why more talkative than Men?

Readers submitted their questions anonymously, and the responses were published weekly.

In a Word

ampullosity
n. pretentious use of language

Though much hath been written and said in order to render the Lexiphantic style ridiculous, yet it is surprising to see how it keeps its ground among circles of a certain kind, where even good sense is by no means a stranger: — let the following card witness, which was really sent by a gentleman to a lady, who had asked his company to tea and supper: — ‘Mr. F—-‘s compliments to Miss S—-, at your post meridian computation, be not fascinated with the ardescence of my bibulating in co, since anterior motives stimulate me to itinerate in a transverse direction. But after the diurnal operosity hath increased the delectability of Vesper, perhaps I may saturate a wonted appetite, by the contuding that petacious root, so nice an esculent, if humidated by butter, joined to mellifluous conviviality.’ — It was read twice before the lady found out that the writer excused himself from coming to tea, but would probably eat a roasted potatoe with her at night.

— Geoffry Gambado, New Oddest of All Oddities, for 1813

Jigsy

Reader Chris Dawson has devised a tiling puzzle game with a twist: Players drag, rotate, and scale pieces to fill a grid, but each piece can be scaled to either 1x or 2x its base size.

“The scaling mechanic doesn’t just add variety — it fundamentally changes the maths of the puzzle space. Scaling creates a solution space that grows faster than puzzle complexity itself. In a minimal 4-piece puzzle [below], adding scaling provides a modest 3x multiplier. But add just 2 more pieces, and that multiplier explodes to 21x — a 7-fold amplification. This isn’t additive enhancement; it’s exponential transformation.”

https://jigsy.app/

Here’s a demo, and here’s the beta, with daily challenges. A multiplayer version is in development.

(Thanks, Chris.)

Cut Spelling

Devised by English orthographer Christopher Upward, Cut Spelling seeks to reform English by eliminating and substituting letters to better match the spoken word:

Wen readrs first se Cut Spelng, as in this sentnce, they ofn hesitate slytly, but then quikly becom acustmd to th shortnd words and soon find text in Cut Spelng as esy to read as traditional orthografy, but it is th riter ho realy apreciates th advantajs of Cut Spelng, as many of th most trublsm uncertntis hav been elimnated.

Words in this scheme are 8 to 15 percent shorter than their standard spellings, and the rules are more systematic, arguably making them easier to learn for both newcomers and established readers. The plan was promoted for a time by the Simplified Spelling Society but, like so many other reform proposals, never achieved wide acceptance.

Inspiration

From the diary of Richard Burton, Oct. 16, 1968:

Stanley Donen told me a funny one about Osgood Perkins. It seems that Perkins was in a long-running melodrama in which he had to kill a character in the last act with a letter opener, stiletto type. One day the props man forgot to put the knife on the table and there was no other instrument around. So instead of throttling his murderee as anybody in his right senses would have done he kicked him smartly up his arse, the fellow fell down and feigned death, and Perkins raked the house with his eyes and said: ‘Fortunately the toe of my boot was poisoned.’

“A Waste of Time”

A little boy spent his first day at school. ‘What did you learn?’ was his aunt’s question. ‘Didn’t learn nothing.’ ‘Well, what did you do?’ ‘Didn’t do nothing. There was a woman wanting to know how to spell “cat,” and I told her.’

— John Scott, The Puzzle King, 1899

The 12-year-old Winston Churchill found examinations “a great trial”: “I would have liked to have been examined in history, poetry and writing essays. … I should have liked to be asked to say what I knew. They always tried to ask what I did not know.”