The Pigeonhole

Oh no! It looks like someone has already solved the Connections today. How disappointing. But wait, that can’t be right. These categories are way too easy. The real puzzle must be something else entirely. There are a number of ways you could split these sixteen tiles into four groups. In the grouping we’re looking for, three groups follow the same pattern and the fourth does not. What’s the pattern, and which are the odd words out?

I made beef back ribs last night, which is a rarity for me. Frugality and efficiency are core values here at the Pidgin Kitchen. A moderately expensive piece of meat that requires periodic checking over an extended cooking time is never going to be a go-to, although I make pork ribs now and then. Still, when I saw beef ribs on sale at Costco, I jumped at the opportunity to add some variety to this week’s menu.

Once we stopped admiring pigeons, art was doomed. Well, not exactly, but you have to admit that it makes for a good opening sentence. What I actually mean is that the reason pigeons no longer get the respect they deserve is exactly the same reason that the liberal arts don’t. That reason is that pretty much anyone can have a pigeon these days if they want one. Same goes for a liberal arts education. And what’s the point in having anything, unless others can’t?

Approximately every second week, I plan for the Pigeonhole Sunday Challenge to be a crossword puzzle (standard or cryptic). My preference is for smaller grids and harder clues, usually without gimmicks, so that’s the way I’ll be setting puzzles, at least to start. The clues are what I call “mean.” Most are intentionally oblique, vague, misleading, or punny (the latter usually indicated with a question mark).

The Information Age has left its mark on all aspects of culture, but I think it’s possible to argue that games have changed more over the last 50 years than almost anything else. Increasingly sophisticated digital games have made gaming a near-inescapable part of daily life, but they’ve also produced changes in our expectations for other types of games. Services like Uber Eats, Netflix, and Spotify have changed how, when, and to what extent we consume food, video, and music.

I’m a good home cook. I know this because friends and family who come over for dinner are forever asking for my recipes or suggesting that I write a cookbook. I promised them that if I lost my job, following up on that request would be the first order of business. I’ve already made a liar of myself — instead, I launched a pigeon blog and started work on a novel. I did begin outlining the cookbook, however, and may yet write it.

I’ve been a journalist focusing on the gambling industry for nearly as long as I’ve been a father. My son is now a teenager, and it’s hard not to notice the extent to which the last year has been one of growth for him — physically, emotionally, and behaviourally. The timing feels right for me to take on similar growth in my career.

Today’s post combines two of my favourite things: mathematical logic and social hot takes. The logic problem is above. The hot take is that the world has gotten too weird, and we need to get back to normalcy. Credit for the mathematical logic portion goes to Adam B. Spencer, whose NerdNews Substack you can subscribe to below. I’ve adapted his puzzle to be more pigeony — an obvious improvement — but also a bit more elaborate.

We all know what it means to pick on someone, but it’s a slightly strange turn of phrase. It doesn’t quite seem to fit any of the most common contemporary uses of pick, such as to select something, to dislodge it with a fingernail, or to harvest fruit. Yesterday’s ramble about normalcy almost included a section about picking on people for their differences.

I plan for The Pigeonhole to feature games and puzzles on a regular basis, because they’ve been my jam for longer than pigeons have. I’m still figuring out my publication schedule, so I can’t promise that this will remain a Sunday feature, but it seems like a reasonable starting point. Today, I’d like to present a very simple game I came up with, called Birds on a Wire.