Konokopia

03/31/2023

Cryptogram Sample

There are 29 cryptograms in my book “My Silly Puzzles”. In the book, you have to decode a message, a secret note, but in this sample, you just have to decode some unrelated words.

I’m a fan of puzzle apps. My iPhone is loaded with them. “Lara Croft GO”, “Hexologic” and “The Room” series are my favorites. But I no longer buy apps. I now challenge myself by creating puzzles and then challenge myself again by solving them. It’s fun. Paper puzzles introduce us to the pleasure of reason and the pleasure of silence. It is a form of meditation. (You have to take deep, slow breaths.)

I’ve noticed that electronic puzzle games reinforce our short attention spans. We invest little effort into solving them. We treat them as action games. If a puzzle requires too long a thought, we just click it away and move on to another one that’s less stressful. (Thinking can cause stress.)

Paper puzzles, because they don’t offer instant solution checks, force us to try harder to solve each puzzle. Also, electronic puzzles seem to be in endless supply, so we value each one less. Puzzles in a book are limited—we know exactly how many we have—so each one becomes precious. We don’t want to waste it.

Well, here’s the cryptogram:

0578, 91244, 357, 386, 64273

miscellany
mishmash
+ mess
———————
7342469930

(Unfortunately, this works only with monospaced fonts like Courier, which I use in the book for these and a couple of other types of puzzles.)

03/24/2023

Superheroes & Supervillains

[This is another outtake from my puzzle book “My Silly Puzzles”. And it is another Truth Tellers and Liars logic puzzle set (with six puzzles). It includes the characters of Superman, Batman, the Joker and my own creation—Madeline the Mad Welder. The intro is a spoof of hard-boiled detective fiction written in rhyming prose, a brew of Frank Miller and Shel Silverstein.]

Madeline,
The Mad Welder—
Her weld felled
The Man of Steel
And Batman in his Batmobile.

A touch past midnight. The moon silently stares down, possibly with a dejected frown and pity, upon the filthy streets of the rat infested Gotham City, an urban colossus of concrete and rust, toxic sweat and disgust, where criminals grow like weeds and each criminal feeds on the weak, the wealthy, and the barely healthy. (Only those with the strongest constitution can survive Gotham’s air pollution. Its acid rain can drive one insane!)

Four muscley silhouettes stood in the sinister dark, and glared. Even Superman’s vision has been temporarily impaired with Kryptonite Lite, and affected his supersight.

But, HARK—the Joker always lies; the Mad Welder and Superman always tell the truth; and Batman does both. He might even lie under oath. Or tell the truth. That’s his prerogative as the supersleuth.

So now, furrow your brow—which Super Silhouette belongs to which Super? (Shake off your stupor and be alert, or the wrong Supers may end up getting hurt!)

Issue 1 of 6
One: “I am Superman.”
Two: “I am not Superman.”
Three: “One is the Mad Welder! The poor little trooper is having a brain blooper.”
Four: “I am the Joker.”

03/17/2023

“Louise and Her Knees”
Sample Puzzle and Solution

There are 15 “Louise” puzzles (from Anderson, Louise, to O’Brien, Louise*) in my book “My Silly Puzzles”.** The set is introduced with a short poem—“I love silver, I love gold, / But most of all, I love olde. / I love olde trees, I love olde cheese, / I love olde knees, I love…”

Here is a new Louise.

Parker, Louise
If Louise is twice as old as Larry who is six years older than Mary, and half as old as Mark who is twenty-four years older than Clark who is four times older than Mary and three times older than Larry, then how old is Louise?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SOLUTION:
The puzzle can be solved by trial and error or by using algebra. Using trial and error may be quicker, but using algebra feels more satisfying.

To solve it with algebra, we translate the information we are given into equations.

Louise = 2Larry
Larry = Mary + 6
Louise = Mark / 2
Mark = Clark + 24
Clark = 4Mary
Clark = 3Larry

The last, and the first, two equations are the key. (At least the key to one way of solving this puzzle with algebra.)

Clark = 4Mary = 3Larry

But,
Larry = Mary + 6

So,
3Larry = 3(Mary + 6) = 3Mary + 18

Thus,
4Mary = 3Mary + 18
Mary = 18

And—
Louise = 2Larry = 2(Mary + 6)
Louise = 48

———————————————
* The names are real, but any resemblance to actual persons is entirely coincidental.
** Available at https://www.amazon.com/author/maciek_jozefowicz

Follow Jozefowicz, Maciek and explore their bibliography from Amazon.com's Jozefowicz, Maciek Author Page.

03/14/2023

The Polyjuice Prank:
Unauthorized Harry Potter Mysteries

[This is an outtake from “My Silly Puzzles”. It is a Truth Tellers and Liars logic puzzle, often referred to as Knights and Knaves (and Spies) puzzle. Instead of using knights and knaves, and spies, I use characters from the Harry Potter books.

I like the set-up, but unfortunately, they’re not my characters, so I couldn’t include them in my book. The puzzles get progressively more difficult as I add characters. The last puzzle, Book 7, uses 12 characters.]

Harry’s not Harry. Hermione’s not Hermione. Malfoy’s not Malfoy. Everyone at Hogwarts, stunned by some sinister Wizardly spells, has been transformed into someone else. (Even Professor Snape has taken a different shape!)

ATTENTION! ATTENTION!
Introducing the Weasley Twins newest invention—SuperPolyjuice Potion Spray. Order a bottle today!

What the deuce! Now we can’t tell who is really who*. We can only deduce. All we know for certain is that Hermione Granger and Harry Potter (and Albus Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat) always tell the truth; Draco Malfoy and Lord Voldemort (and Severus Snape and Bellatrix Lestrange) always lie; and Ron Weasley and Peeves (and Rubeus Hagrid and Doby) sometimes tell the truth and sometimes, sigh, unfortunately lie.

So remember—you must not trust your eyes because their Polyjuiced crust is a clever disguise. Ignore their new covers, look carefully inside and let reason be your guide. And don’t panic, you are not stuck on the Titanic—your confusion is only your illusion.

————————————————————
* Well, that is not completely true. The truth tellers, as well as the liars, somehow know. Maybe they can cheat deceit, or maybe their mind is magically aligned. It’s tough to tell. Maybe it’s their sorcerous sense of smell.


Book 1

Lord Voldemort: “I am NOT Hermione, but Ron IS Peeves.”

Hermione Granger: “I am Hermione and Peeves is Harry.”

Ron Weasley: “I am Lord Voldemort.”

Peeves: “I am Peeves.”

Harry Potter: “I am Malfoy.”

Draco Malfoy: “Hermione is Ron.”

03/10/2023

“My Silly Puzzles” is a 600-page* book of word and logic puzzles.** It is the second book in the “My Silly…” series. (The first one is “My Silly Poems”; the third one will be “My Silly Thoughts”.) What makes this book distinct from other puzzle books is the way that the various puzzles are presented—with humor and with rhyme. Many of the puzzles begin with a poem and that poem is the inspiration for the scenario, written in rhyming prose, for that particular puzzle set.

Here is an example of a simple, traditional Truth Teller and Liar logic puzzle (of which type there are numerous variations in the book, each with different characters and a different scenario, one set includes Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Professor Moriarty and Inspector Lestrade):

“The Lion and the Mayan”

Two little lies
Put on disguise,
On Halloween—
One is a hungry Lion,
The other a lonely Mayan.

Heidi and Monique put on costumes to seek sweet treats on their neighborhood streets. But who is who? Even their mother can’t tell one from the other. She knows that Heidi always tells the truth, and Monique, being so clever, does so never. But the mother, having more than a bit of her own wit, unmasks—“Is either of you Monique?” she slickly asks.

And if the Mayan replies, “Mom, of course one of us is Monique,” then who is the Mayan and who is the Lion?

Besides Truth Teller and Liar puzzles (also known as Knights and Knaves), there are Cryptograms, puzzles in which digits have been replaced with letters. An addition problem is given where the addends (the numbers that are being added) are represented by letters and the sum is a number. Using this problem, you can determine which letter represents which digit.

Once you solve which letter stands for which digit, you have to decode a secret note that’s been written using those digits by replacing the digits with the corresponding letters. For example:

straight + starts = 15,898,016
Secret Note: 5645’173265!

(To make them easier to solve, these types of puzzles are formatted differently in the book than in this example.)

There are other logic puzzles, like Elimination Grids / Logic Grids (“Neighbors,” “Who’s Got Kenny’s Teeth,” “Monique, Missing in Mozambique,” “The Apartment”), as well as word puzzles (“Daisy Goes A’Kissin’,” “Bad Luck, Stadium Stuck,” “Ticktionary”) that are also introduced and explained with poems.

For example, “Bad Luck, Stadium Stuck” begins—

In a broken stadium elevator,
Thirteen spectators with bad luck
Get stuck!
How many can you list?
An illustrator.
An innovator.
An imitator.
Do you get the gist?
There are thirty, sturdy, other fans
(Where is my pen?
That is wrong,
There are only ten!***)
From a variety of clans,
Tapping the floor with their toes,
As their tetchiness grows,
And their souls, unseated,
Get overheated.
While their teams on the field play,
Who are they?

A clue in the form of a short poem is given for each spectator that is stuck in this useless elevator.

“My Silly Puzzles” also includes a new type of puzzle—the Poetry Path. The Poetry Path puzzle is my own creation, an amalgam of two puzzle types—the Maze and the Word Search.

In Poetry Path, instead of looking for individual words, like one does in a Word Search, you are looking for a poem, a combination of words that link together to make the correct path through a field created from letters. (There is no actual “maze” as such, and there are no walls that would define paths because there is no need for them. Words are the paths.) The poem that the player is searching for is not given. It has to be discovered. Only visual clues as to where the poem begins and where the poem ends are given.

“My Silly Puzzles” is a book that is fun to read and fun to solve, and it can be enjoyed alone or in a group,**** in lieu of a board game, by children and by adults. It’s a great way to unplug and give your eyes, and your mind, a respite from digital over-saturation.

————————————————————
* The softcover and digital versions are each 608 pages. The hardback version is 544 pages. The content is the same, but I was forced to condense the presentation of two puzzles to fit under the Amazon 550-page limit for hardback books.
** In addition to puzzles, sprinkled throughout the book are some of my silly riddles.
*** The narrator of this poem is wrong on both counts. There are 21 puzzles in this set.
**** With Truth Tellers and Liars puzzle types, for instance, each person can become a character and read his/her lines while the remaining players try to figure out who is who.

The book is available from Amazon at:
https://www.amazon.com/author/maciek_jozefowicz

02/10/2023

Poetry Path, A New Puzzle Type

Poetry Path is a new type of puzzle. It is my own creation, an amalgam of two puzzle types—the Maze and the Word Search.

In Poetry Path, instead of looking for individual words, like one does in a Word Search, the player is looking for a poem, a combination of words that link together to make the correct path through a field created from letters. (There is no actual “maze” as such. And there are no walls that would define paths because there is no need for them. Words are the paths.)

The poem that the player is searching for is not given. It has to be discovered. Only visual clues as to where the poem begins and where the poem ends are given.

The rules for Poetry Path puzzles are similar to the rules for Word Search puzzles. Words can be formed going up, down, left or right. Unlike that of a Word Search puzzle, though, in Poetry Path puzzle, words cannot be formed across. But they do not have to be inline; they can “stagger” and/or “fold”.

While all punctuation that makes up each poem is included in the puzzle, spaces that separate words have been eliminated. I did this to make solving the puzzle more difficult and to make the puzzle look better.

To create the Poetry Path puzzles that will appear in my next book, “My Silly Puzzles”, I used my own short poems from my last book, “My Silly Poems”. But any short poem makes a good path for this puzzle. The poem is the successful solution to the puzzle and it becomes the reward.

01/06/2023

“My Silly Poems” is my latest book—a 400-page collection of my humorous verses. Most of the poems appear in my other books, but what sets this collection apart is that it is typeset, rather than hand printed, and it is without illustrations. It’s just poems.

(In putting together this book, I realized that a written work is a collaboration between the writer and the reader’s imagination. Illustrations prevent that collaboration by obstructing the reader’s imagination. Words are beautiful in themselves and in the meaning and imagery that they arouse in us. Different people not only imagine the same words differently, but often react to the same words differently. Half of communication is interpretation.)

With the nine books that I consider to be of this series (“my rhymes, my crimes”), I went from the most unconventional—“Oomalooma”, “Welcome, Chum”—to the most conventional—“My Silly Poems”. The six books in-between—“Achoo!”, “Ouch!”, “Ahem!”, “Hmph!”, “Argh!”, and “Yikes!”—display my poems mostly as single-panel cartoons, and, occasionally, as comics.*

The new book will have two sibling books, which I am close to completing—“My Silly Puzzles” and “My Silly Captain Curtain Poems”. Raising the total of the entire “my rhymes, my crimes” series to 11 books.

It is a body of work that I’m proud of and thankful to have been in the position** to create. It is my unique, personal vision. The work innovates, without embracing current trends or fads, but it is still intimately connected to the ideas and the beliefs that are part of the extraordinary cultural heritage that is our Western civilization.***

Once I’m done with this group of books, I’ll take a break before moving on to something else. Maybe I’ll begin making drawings for an art book collection—“Playgrounds”, “Nudes”, “The Fetus”?

Whatever it is, I will continue to follow my bliss.****

———————————
* What is essentially the same content is expressed in three very different ways.

** That position required sacrifice, as opportunities sometimes do, but that sacrifice only makes it sweeter. (Actually, it doesn’t. I would prefer to have it all and have it without having to make any sacrifice. Alas.)

*** It feels pretentious to write this for a book of silly poems, but silliness and humor is part of our heritage — Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”, Rabelais’ “Gargantua” and “Pantagruel”, Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”, Molière, etc. Not that I am comparing my work to these masters. (My work is closer to Dr. Seuss, Shell Silverstein and Charles Schulz.) Rather, I’m pointing out that Western culture is not all drama, tragedy, romantic suicides and Shakespeare’s sonnets.

**** “Sacrifice and Bliss” is my favorite chapter in Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth”. (“The Hero’s Adventure”, “The Gift of the Goddess” and “Tales of Love and Marriage” are wonderful, too.)

***** https://www.amazon.com/author/maciek_jozefowicz

11/01/2022

Thumbnails of work-in-progress that will become my 11th (“Argh!”) and 12th (“Yikes!”) books. Both will be collections of illustrated humorous poems. Included in these collections will be standouts like “Foot Litter on Twitter”, “Been There, Done That”, “This Fetus…”, “My Bio” and “Witches’ Brew”.

08/10/2022

Rough landing—another page from the story of Daisy’s trip to the moon.

08/09/2022

Daisy’s trip to the moon.

08/08/2022

Another page from “Kolin”, the dragon who couldn’t fly. (But he can bicycle.)

08/05/2022

Kolin, the dragon who couldn’t fly.

08/04/2022

What would you rather be—an ugly princess or a beautiful bug? With the right attitude, I think you can be happy being either one. (I wonder if bugs dream of being other bugs?)

08/03/2022

Socratic wisdom from a humble hammer — “Know thyself.” Life is the best teacher.

08/02/2022

Stealing for Justice

What would you rather be — the rich or the one stealing from the rich? Being the latter feels more exciting and comes with less guilt and more glamor. (I’m thinking of Errol Flynn in “The Adventures of Robin Hood”— life doesn’t get any better than that.)

Maybe we should adopt our justice system to the age of social justice—if you steal from the poor, you get a prison term, a televised public shaming and you have to return twice the value of what you’ve stolen; if you steal from the rich, you get a private slap on the wrist (or a twist of the ear), a talking to (“Think twice ‘cause stealing ain’t nice!”) and you get to keep the loot.

But rich is relative, so for social justice laws we must define rich as being anyone who’s got more than you, and poor as being anyone who’s got less than you. Thus, you can freely steal from those who have more, but not from those who have less. Nice!

08/01/2022

WARNING—Emotional hypersensitivity can lead to a severe psychosis. (Being a psychologist must be a blast! You get to invent mental disorders, define and name them, like “hypersensitive narcissism”. Fun!)

07/29/2022

Hid-hid-hideous!!!

07/28/2022

I think that, eventually, I’ll make this one into an actual comic book story, kind of like “The Adventures of Tintin”, that will tell more about Miss Ruby and her treasure chest and her adventure in Tibet.

07/27/2022

Inspired by Hawthorne’s classic novel—a line of fashionable sweaters with scarlet letters. You can hide them in your closet or take them out and parade them with pride. These letter sweaters represent the latest in guilt shaming.

07/26/2022

Goya’s “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” from Los Caprichos series is as apt today as it was during his time. But much of the rest of the series feels topically outdated. We need a contemporary equivalent that expresses contemporary follies. Maybe something like this…

07/25/2022

Cassandra is the most decorated female Olympic athlete in history, winning gold medals, and setting records, in running, jumping, swimming, diving, squatting, butting, punching, crunching, munching, and everything else. She also helped Greece win gold in women’s volleyball, concussing 15 opponent players along the way to the finals with what has been dubbed “the deadliest spike in volleyball.”

(Of course, a person is free to believe what he wants to believe, but is he free to bully others into believing what he wants them to believe?)

07/22/2022

Traditional fairy tales and lullabies are outdated. They no longer express our culture.

07/21/2022

Looting for justice.

07/20/2022

Let’s get ready to R-R-R-RUMBLE…
Social justice warriors—every age gets the heroes it deserves. (The Don Quixote Syndrome may be more prevalent today than it was during Cervantes’ time.)

07/19/2022

We are what we eat. (But it smells so good!)