February 6, 2023 • 36 mins
Today is a deep dive episode all about puzzles! We're talking: crosswords, jigsaw, sudoku, and more! We talk about how finding the right puzzle for you can be good for your mental health, an unusual spin on Wheel of Fortune, and more! AND we're joined by @rickeyrandom! It's a fun one.
Plus check out our videos @markkendallcomedy
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous News as a production of I Heart Radio and
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wanted to put this special note for y'all at the
top of this episode that after the season we're gone
on highest. We have had such a blast creating this
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(00:20):
want to stay in touch with you all. So for
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Mark Kendall Comedy and I'm at Worthy Bird Pictures that's
w R L E Y, and of course follow Ridiculous
News podcasts as well for updates. We would love to
hear from you all. Okay, So without further ado, let's
get to this amazing episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're amazing
(00:45):
and crazy topics to begin to choose, you would now
doing the antil ridiculous News, We're interesting viewers are working
to rule the broadcast them all sorts awhile be course,
the keep last brand of the journalism, the strange end,
the usual stories, and we gave it's all about ridiculous news.
Everywhere we tell about ridiculous ness. Hey, everyone, Welcome to
(01:07):
Ridiculous News, not your average news show. We cover stuff
you didn't realize was news, from the wild, funny, to
the deep and hidden to the absolutely ridiculous. I'm Mark Kendall.
I'm Atlanta based comedian and when I try doing puzzles,
my patients definitely gets tested. So if you haven't guessed already,
today is a deep dive all about puzzles. We're gonna
be talking about jigsaw puzzles. Maybe you will mention sudoku,
(01:29):
maybe that will come up, crossword puzzles and more. Uh.
My amazing co host Bill is the way today. But
we are joined by the incredible Ricky Boyton. Ricky is
a phenomenal actor and comedian who you may recognize from
the viral smash hit Too Many Cooks on Adult swim
Heels on the Stars Network, and his hilarious videos on
his at Ricky Random social media channels. Welcome Ricky, Hey,
thanks for having me back. Absolutely man, So every time
(01:51):
we got to guess, we have a segment called giving
them their flowers. And you know this is a very
specific compliment that alone makes sense to you and me, Ricky,
but man, thank you for reminding me of the Clive Owen,
uh classic movie. Just before we started recording, we were
just kind of talking about like movies, like action movies,
(02:13):
and you reminded me of Shoot Him Up. And I
remember seeing that in the movie theater for the first time.
It was so good. So anyway, thank you for thank
you for that memory. No problem anytime, man, anytime. I
love that movie. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. So today we're gonna
be talking about puzzles for our news nibbles we're gonna
hop into right now. These are all headlines related to
puzzles in some way. So this first article from the
(02:35):
BBC News from several years ago, the headline is Farndon
Parish Council order Sudoka grave to be removed. So the
widow of a mathematician has been told to remove a
Sudoka puzzle from his gravestone by the council. So the
Farndon Parish Council said the grave breached the standards for St.
Chad's Church graveyard. And I gotta say, I looked at
(02:57):
the picture of this stone and I thought it was
totally fine. You know, I don't know what their standards aren't,
but uh, Mrs Robinson, the widow said, other graves I've
seen have a dolphin and even a deck of cards.
So if they can remain, why can't this. Uh. Mr Robinson,
who died at the age of sixty six, had worked
(03:18):
as a numerical analyst and had not given any instructions
about his grave when he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
So Mrs Robinson said, I just thought this would be
a good tribute to him, and I think that's really nice.
She goes on to say, we were talking about a
two inch square Sudoku puzzle and a one line mathematical
equation because my husband was a mathematician and did a
(03:39):
lot of Sadoka puzzles. Mrs Robinson said the stonemason did
not realize they had a duty to consult the parish council. Wait,
it's wrong with that. It's that's nice, that's pretty cool.
You know to put the putting that on the on
the on the stone form like you know the person
us is so you know he was a mathematician, Like
they say, you know that, there's a great way to
(04:00):
honor him. But I'll understand what the huge problem is. Well,
the Paris Council said that the stone was against regulations
and had to be removed. So one of the parish
counselors sue Rowlands and said that it contravenes the guidelines
that we laid down a couple of years before this
particular gravestone was made, and so they went on to
say that they were becoming concerned about the inappropriateness of
(04:23):
some of the things that we're appearing on the headstones.
So I guess they're trying to agree to a set
of guidelines that there would only be simple inscriptions, and
so I think that maybe there unfortunately they're kind of
using this particular gravestone as an example. I'm not sure now.
At the time of this article was written, this was
several years ago, it looked like they were going to
(04:43):
continue to discuss the matter. So it's not necessarily a
close and check case. So hopefully it changed for the better.
But I guess maybe in their particular cemetery they didn't
want customization. But to me, it's just like you got
to let people deal with that how they want to,
you know, said, yeah, and what is wrong with the dooku?
Like what, I think it's great? I never really play
(05:07):
the dookus, right so, but I don't know, what are
you afraid that you're like, um, spill out a phrase
that's like inappropriate to someone like that, like you know,
I don't know, you know what whatever. Yeah, I can't
imagine what would be wrong with the very small sudoku
puzzle that's on the gravestone, as you know, something that
that person would have enjoyed. But I'm thinking that that council,
(05:30):
I'm just picturing them, um, not being great at math
in high school, right right, and being triggered by it
until they yeah, yeah, but let's let that person live
in peace, man. That's that's something to honor them, you know.
And you said, you said, like you know, they had
animals like dolphins on other ones and stuff like that.
(05:51):
Or it could be a situation where they wanted to
take something that was like the the mildest, you know,
the softest type of situation and start with that to
show them night and look we mean business, like if
we will take this one now, we'll take that down
to It could be like that type of warning shot
but still dull cool alone. Absolutely, I agree. Yeah yeah uh.
(06:16):
This next headlines from The Guardian saying literary puzzle solved
for just the third time in almost one hundred years.
So this story is pretty wild. Okay. So one of
the world's most fiendish literary puzzles, which is a murder
mystery in which all the pages are out of order,
has been solved for just the third time in almost
a century at the time of this article was written.
(06:37):
So Kane's job Bone was dreamed up by The Observer's
first cryptic crossword inventor, Edward Powis Mathers, who was known
as the Porkinmata. This book was first published in ninety four.
It invites the reader to reorder the books one hundred pages,
which is the number of possible combinations, is a figure
(06:57):
with one hundred fifty eight digits, and solved the murders
within so. John Finnimore, British comedy writer and creator of
radio fource Cabin Pressure, said Kane's jaw Bone was far
and away the most difficult puzzle he had ever tried. Uh.
They went on to say that the first time I
opened the box, I swiftly concluded that it was way
out of my league, and the only way I'd even
(07:19):
have a shot at it was if I were for
some bizarre reason trapped in my own home for months
on end, with nowhere to go and no one to see. Unfortunately,
the universe heard me, he said, uh, he said. It
took about four months, not continuously, but I had it
spread out on the spare bed and every so often
I potter in. Sorry, potter in was just like a
(07:42):
funny British phrasing that I thought was interesting. I potter in,
stared at it till my forehead bled, spent an hour
online researching the history of Shrewsbury Prison or something. Swapped
three cards, move one back, and potter off again. There's
that word potter off. Anyway, how anyone solved it before
the Internet I cannot begin to imagine. So I thought
that was really interesting. Dude, that doesn't sound like fun
(08:05):
at all. No, why why would you? Why would you
do that? Well, I think part of it was he
was part of He was one of twelve people they
got asked to try and solve this puzzle, and it
was during the pandemic, So I think it was kind
of a thing where they were stuck at home and
you know, they had this impossible puzzle, and so maybe
(08:28):
it was the kind of thing like the only time
I would do it is if I was really stuck
at home. So I guess that's probably what happened with
this person. But the people who were able to solve it,
what did they receive? So he was the only one
of the twelve at the time that was able to
solve the puzzle, and I think he got a thousand
pounds in respect. So okay, yeah, because like if they
(08:50):
just got a T shirt up, but somebody would be
piste off. I like, I mean, it kind of reminds
me kind of like the and some like the escape
room type scenarios where you have to figure this one
part out just to go to the next next part.
I've never been to an actual escape room, but I've
seen it like on um, I'm be honest, I've watched
(09:12):
like escape room video games until YouTube before, and just
to it makes you like really fake, not just like
stuff you learn in school, but also like you know, um,
common sense and street smart. It's just like all that
connected just to figure out the next uh situation. I
think that's like so cool. Do you have do you
(09:33):
have you been to an escape room? You know? I
have not. Actually the closest thing I've done to an
escape room, which wasn't really an escape room at all.
So in Atlanta they had the Stranger Things experience come
through town. Have you heard about this? And so part
of the experience is they kind of it's more of
like an immersive theater experience to be honest. But sometimes
you are quote unquote trapped in a room and you
(09:56):
and everyone there has to do some sort of like
stranger things that ativity to get out. But it's not
like a puzzle that you solved. But that's the closest
I've been to an escape room truly. No, I still
I think that's I consider I can escape room situations.
It was. It was a lot of fun. It was
a lot of fun, but it wasn't like we were
really collaborating on like a puzzle or we didn't have
(10:16):
to find a clue, but it was it was moderately interactive.
You know. Yeah. Um, the only reason I haven't been
to one because I'm afraid of that's gonna be like
a situation where things I don't know, like you know,
how do remember from school? Like, Oh, I'm stuck right here,
so I guess I'm gonna get bitten by the zombie. Um,
(10:37):
you know, I guess it being too hard, but at
the same time you don't want it to be too easy.
So yeah, but I always thought that was pretty cool
though I agree. I agree. So this next one from
today dot Com by Anna Chan and the headline is
college student loses Wheel of Fortune puzzle with all letters
revealed And so I went and watched this video and
(10:59):
it's tough. So the article says Wheel of Fortune can
offer up some mind boggling puzzles, but when an entire
phrase is spelled out, contestants generally have no trouble solving.
But that wasn't true for player at Julian Batts, who
some viewers are now calling the worst player in the
history of the show. So yeah, I watched the video.
(11:22):
It is tough, but I wouldn't call the worst player
in the history of the show. He was he was
doing his best. So what happened was he was playing
Wheel of Fortune, he was spinning, he was getting all
the letters, and then sure enough all the letters were revealed,
like it was completely full, and the solution was mythological
hero Achilles, right, but instead he said it chill Us,
(11:47):
mythological hero, and so then he got the buzzer and
so the round then went to the person next to him.
That's just like said it correctly, and so I didn't
realize this, but one of the rules for Wheel of
Fortune is when a contestant tries to solve a puzzle,
they must pronounce it using the generally accepted pronunciation, and
(12:10):
a spokesperson from the game show told that to today.
The thing is, though it worked out, I mean, he
won eleven thousand, seven hundred dollars and made it to
the bonus round to that, so he was still successful,
but that was an embarrassing gaff. So I hate to
say this, but it's kind of tough to convince people
(12:30):
that you shouldn't have lost that because one of the
main things to go on Will of Fortunation, you didn't
learn how to know how to spell right right right. Yeah,
I'm not the best I spelled of myself, so I
know I would never be on that show. But I'm like,
and I think spelling aside. It's just like, you got
these lights cameras on you. He could have been nervous,
(12:52):
you know. I think it's probably nerves Like if you
were to ask him the next day, do you know
what an achilles is or have you heard about the
mythological you know, or have you heard about the mythical
hero Achilles. They'd probably be like, yeah, you know, but
in that moment, they just kind of flubbed it, And
you're right, and in the video. I continue to watch
the video, he had other similar clubs, so I think
(13:13):
he was just probably in his head. So yeah, and
you're right not to not to mention. You know, there's
uh studio, live studio audience, and then you got cameras
and then you know, so many a lot of people
watch the Fortune. Yeah, so yeah, so yeah, I just
gotta sucks. Yeah, but you know he's still got like
eleven grand, so yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know
(13:36):
it's just like for Eleving Grand. Hey, I'll be embarrassed
for Eleving Grand for sure. Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna take
a quick break to hero words from our sponsor. Yeah yeah,
amazing and crazy comics to ridiculous news. All right, y'all,
(13:57):
we're back. We're still talking about puzzles. I'm joined by
Ricky Boynton and so Rickie, let's talk about jigsaw puzzles. Right,
so you probably recognize those. That's when you get a
box you put these pieces that fit together. So this
article from CBS News had a little bit of info
on the history of how this particular kind of puzzle
came to be. So, the very first jigsaw puzzle is
said to have been made by London map maker John
(14:20):
Spillsbury in the seventeen sixties. Uh So and Williams is
a jigsaw puzzle historian and author of the Jigsaw Puzzle
Piecing Together a History. And they said that he pasted
a map onto a thin piece of wood and he
used a scroll saw to cut it up. England would
be one piece, Germany would be another piece. And so
he marketed these to the very affluent and influential people
(14:43):
as a tool to teach their children geography. Oh that's cool,
that is cool. Yeah. So then by the time we
get to the twentieth century, gaming company Parker Brothers came
up with the idea of interlocking pieces, each one cut
by hand, mostly uh and Williams says, by women. So
Parker Brothers claimed that it hired women because they already
(15:05):
knew how to sew uh so, that they were easy
to train. But they didn't mention that they could pay
the women a lot less. So that probably was the
actual motivation. I already guess it does. It does. But
um so, what's interesting though about these puzzles. Right about
jagsaw puzzles. It was during the Great Depression that the
popularity of jigsaw puzzles exploded. So, according to Williams, thirty
(15:29):
million households in the United States were absorbing ten million
jigsaw puzzles every week. Good man, I know, right, I mean,
but we think about it now. If you if you
go to anyone's house, at least they have at least
one jigsaw puzzle, you know, whether it was they bought
it themselves or it was you know, passed down from
(15:50):
like their their parents and grandparents or whatever. But every
person's house I've been to, I've always seen at least
one jigsaw puzzles. So that makes a lot of sense. Yeah,
So this talks about how puzzles were both entertainment and employment.
So there were so many people out of work at
the time. And this is from Williams again. You could
buy the equipment that you needed to make them for
(16:11):
twenty bucks or so. So they set up a saw
in their kitchen or their basement and they started making
these puzzles and selling them to their neighbors are renting
them out through the local drug store, which I never
knew it was super interesting. That is that is really
cool man. Um and it just also makes me also
think about just the business of like making toys, you
(16:32):
know what I mean, like puzzles or um dolls and
action figures or things like that. Um. Yeah, and I
always thought it was cool. Um. There's a series on Netflix.
I forgot what I think it's called, Um have you
seen it or something like that. They're talking about how
the first series of the first season I believe, was
(16:54):
about how different movies got made like Frantans a Robot,
cub Um, Baby Hills, cod stuff like that. But there's
also a series where it was all about toys that yes,
the toys that movie, the movies that made us in
the toys there we go on the toys that made it.
But you know exactly what I'm talking about, just like
how these franchises started, and then just seeing that documentary
(17:18):
of just a simple idea like that that's exploding. And
you know, the puzzle has been here for so long.
You said it was started with the SEV Dreds. Well,
the Jigsaw Puzzle goes back to the seventeen sixties. Yeah, yeah,
so like and to this day people are still doing puzzles. Now.
(17:38):
One thing I love about puzzles is, um the fact
that you have to have patients to do to actually
solve a puzzle, whether it's like one of those actual
puzzles or like you know, some kind of uh riddle
or whatever. But yeah, you actually have to have patience
to do that. So, um, I guess it can be
like very soothing for people who can be like, um,
(17:58):
there a form of therapy. Well, it's actually interesting that
you mentioned that because I said what was really nicely
into the next story and this is from wire dot
com by Zoe Hannah, and the headline is why you
gravitate to puzzles when you're depressed and so and it's
not just when you're depressed, but why puzzles can be calming.
The article goes on to explain more, where it says
that according to London based trauma therapist Olivia James, it
(18:21):
doesn't matter what format your puzzles come in, Solving them
feels good because it offers a sense of control and satisfaction.
She goes on to say that what's so satisfying about
puzzles is that there are no surprises. Nothing unexpected is
going to happen in a puzzle. So focusing such that
your mind is occupied but not excessively challenged, James says,
(18:45):
is incredibly helpful for people with depression, anxiety, and stress
because it offers what she describes as a little holiday
from yourself. So for some people this quote gentle focus
takes the form of tending to a garden, were tidying
a room. On others, puzzles filled the space. Yeah, um,
(19:07):
in the way way it keeps you present, you know,
it keeps you like you said, what keeps you focused?
That makes a lot of sense because also um then
they say like crossword puzzles or those type of puzzles,
um are good for like people like for like dementia, believe.
So I think it's definitely like helps your brain for sure.
And you also see a lot of um. And then
(19:28):
we were growing up, you always see like your grandparents
are always doing some kind of puzzle where it was
the doku or a cross web puzzle, what um word
search or whatever. So it makes a lot of sense.
But yeah, man, that's so cool to hear that it
helps out with mentally, it helps get your mental health.
And like, you know, you don't really think about it
that that way. You just go and do it. But
(19:49):
I guess why you're in it, you know, that's when
you're like that less, you're less focused on the situation
that you're dealing with. I guess inmorality. Um. So yeah,
have you always been always been good with like puzzle
and um, any type of puzzle. So I definitely remember
playing them as a kid. More recently, I've tried some
like more challenging puzzles and sometimes it's relaxing, sometimes it's
(20:12):
it's frustrating. And the article kind of touches on that sum.
So this article from wire dot com goes on to
say that the effectiveness of puzzles as a coping mechanism
depends greatly on how challenging the puzzle is for each player.
And that's again according to trauma therapist James, it's about
finding the right balance between challenging and feasible. It can't
(20:34):
be so hard that you get frustrated and down on yourself,
but it can't be so easy that you get bored
or distracted by other thoughts while playing. And so I've
gotten a jigsaw puzzle recently. It's like a thousand pieces
and it's very satisfying when you find the pieces that fit. However,
this particular puzzle that I'm working on might be just
(20:56):
a bit too challenging because I find myself getting frustrated
and walking away. But like we said, there's a bunch
of different types of puzzles. And have you ever played
Uncharted before? It is a video game. I have not
played Uncharted back seen it so Uncharted it's like half
action and also like half puzzles, and the difficulty level
(21:19):
is like it's challenging, but I'm able to figure it
out eventually kind of and that's sort of the sweet spot.
So if I could find like that level of difficulty
but for a jigsaw puzzle, I think I'd be really
I'd be that that would be a very relaxing activity.
Right now, it's just kind of frustrating and I sort
of power through it, you know. But with the next
(21:39):
puzzle that I get, I think I need to get
one that's just like slightly easier. Do you think all
video games of puzzles? Um, that's a weird question, but no,
that's a good question though. I mean, I guess on
some level because you got to figure out a way too.
I guess you adapt to that situation or figure out
a way how to Yeah, I guess it kind of
depends on your definition of what a puzzle is, you know,
(22:00):
because it's just like you can play like NBA two K, right,
and like basketball isn't exactly a puzzle, but you do
have to figure out where to place certain players or
when to shoot, and so there's like I would imagine
puzzle solving mechanics going on in your brain. But I
think a lot of video games are just straight up
puzzle stuff for sure, because I'm thinking, like, um, well,
(22:21):
I guess it's more specifically like Uncharted, what kind of
games that consider um and please don't hurt me if
I get this wrong, is that considered RPG? UM? I
don't think so. I think it's more of just like
an action game. That's how I think of it, because
I see I see it like the same vein as
um tomb Raider. Yeah, yeah, and stuff like that, And
(22:42):
you know, I like how you know, you can't just
automatically just beat up somebody and just go to the
next level. You have to figure out how to get
out of this trap, how to survive this situation? And
I really like games like that, but I also like
the fighting part aspects of it too, so um, like,
for instance, I've really enjoyed the God of War. Oh
(23:02):
that looks fun. Yeah, yeah, have you play? Have you
haven't played any of those? A little bit? I haven't
gotten very far, Like I wasn't very I wasn't very
good when I started playing. But it looks awesome. I've
watched a lot of it. Like, but I'll do is
if a video game gets too hard me and I
like get stuck, I'll go on YouTube and watch people
that are better than me so I can see what
the levels look like ahead and I've done yeah yeah,
(23:29):
and come like, ding, how do I get past the
seagulls or the vultures or whatever? And then you're like, oh, okay,
yeah yeah, I will be honest. Um, when I'm not
playing a game, um, I would like to see I
do like watching speed runs. M that's what For those
(23:49):
who know, a speed run is basically someone beating trying
to beat the game as fast as they can, but
usually there's a record that they're trying to break. So yeah,
but I like watching them, just to see how they
all these little cheats that they have a little ways
of getting around this and this, like oh, you can
take damage here, but help you go farther. You're like, what, Yeah,
(24:09):
that's I just love watching stuff like that. I think
it's I think it's so much fun. And I would
love to see the people who created the game watch
somebody do a speed run. Oh I didn't know about
that glitch right there. Yeah, okay, but yeah, I've always
been a fan of those two. Oh you know, speaking
of speed runs. So there's this person that did Rubik's
(24:30):
Cubes and they were really really good, and they would
like perform by doing Rubik's Cubes in front of an audience.
And I don't just mean like you watch them and
over the course of four or five minutes they put
together a Rubik's Cube. I mean like, no, they'll be
like blindfolded and like in each hand they'll do a
Rubik's Cube with both hands, or it's like they'll do
a Rubik's Cube in one hand by doing something else
with another hand. It was fascinating, but that it was
(24:53):
like a real life speed run, but instead of a
video game, was for Rubik's Cube. Okay, So here's my
question with that. Yeahum, I guess with the the part
when the performance was blindfolded, Yeah, I guess. Rubist cubes
they're supposed to automatically come in like a certain um form.
(25:14):
And what I mean by that is like, um, it's
it's out of whack how it is, how it's like, Um,
you know, I have never bought a Rubi cube, so
I don't know. You mean like if it comes already
put together, if it comes already mixed up, already mixed up.
There trying to say, um, already mixed up? Is there
like a certain format of it being mixed up. I'm
just trying to figure out how would they be able
to do it blindfolded? Like do our certain colors feel
(25:38):
different on the cube, because otherwise I don't know. But
I I saw him do it. I saw him blinded.
You know, I believe it. It's just I didn't know
if there was like a certain way they was automatically
mixed up and then they would memorize the routine of
how to get it back to I think that I
(26:01):
don't know either. I don't know what it was either.
He either, he knew how each color felt or he memorized.
Exactly how he did it, I don't know, but it
was like it was fascinating. Yeah. Yeah, we will be
right back with more ridiculous news after this short break.
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. Don't here to confuse ridiculous news.
(26:27):
All right, y'all, we're back. Got a few more interesting
stories about puzzles here. This next one is from BBC
News and this one was interesting. So we've talked about
Ruby's ques, we talked about crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles. This
is uh an interesting type of jigsaw puzzle. So again,
this is from BBC News and it says that Ted
Howard wrote letters to Molly during the seven years he
(26:51):
spent traveling Europe as a farm worker. When she found
someone reading them in nineteen fifty three, she tore them up,
so Ted again, putting the pieces back together, and completed
the puzzle in two thousand eight, three years after his
wife died. He wrote the love letters on hotel writing
paper as he traveled the UK, Ireland, France and Holland
(27:13):
in the late forties in early fifties, but his wife
tore each one into more than twenty pieces, creating more
than two thousand fragments, some smaller than a thumbnail. Wow,
but he got all of them. He pieced them back together,
piece them back together. Yeah, and these were love letters
that he had written to her through through the years. Yeah,
(27:35):
and he said she would if somebody else random, she
would tear him up. Well, that's what was kind of
unclear in the article. It seemed like something happened where
she found someone else reading these love letters and I
don't know what caused her to tear them up, but
but that's what she did. So, um, so I don't
know what led to that, but that's but that's what happened. Yeah,
(27:58):
but that's that's awesome though, the fact that he was
able to find all those fragments and post them back together,
and it's unds like the ultimate romantic love story, you
know what I mean. Yeah, so it was It's kind
of wild to think that, you know, after this person
that you've loved has passed away, and and as you're
kind of like dealing with them no longer being there,
(28:19):
you're piecing together and literally being reminded of how you
felt about this person, you know, and two thousand pieces
that's a lot, you know, Like that's a lot, and
it's not like I mean, these are letters, so it's
not actually like jigsaw puzzles that are meant to be
put together. Um, he's like trying to figure this out.
(28:42):
I'm surprised that he did it, frankly, yeah, And like
what what if? Like as I was just thinking, like
what if a piece came up missing or what if
a piece uh fell in like a little bit of water,
And for him to be able to find every single
piece and put it together, I'm just amazed by that man,
just the patients. But it also shows, you know, how
(29:03):
much you truly meant to him, you know what I mean.
Which and that's really cool man. You know, it's a
you know, weird way than not kind of be coin
anybody's like, you know I love Conquers Hall yeah type. Yeah.
But it was yeah, like you said, two thousand pieces,
that's a lot. It's a lot of pieces. You had
a lot of You had to have a lot of
patients to do that, man, And how do you start
(29:26):
how do you find Like I don't know, I'm and
I'm like like, yeah, I'm curious because it's just like
all the pieces had to have been together and they
must have been left in that place and it seems
like pretty wild story. So for this next headline, it
deals with crossword puzzles. But before we talk about this
crossword puzzle story, I wanted to share some interesting facts
(29:48):
about crossword puzzles and so this comes from words with
Friends dot com. Uh and it just listed some interesting
crossword puzzle facts. Wife pick something that I thought were interesting.
So the very first crossword puzzle ever published was in
New York World in nine, though the origins of the
crossword puzzle itself stretched back for several hundred years earlier
(30:10):
and can't be perfectly pinpointed. The very first time a
crossword puzzle was mass distributed to the public came on
December twenty one using the name word cross That's really cool, man,
Um just picturing you know, the people when they first
saw the first crossword puzzle and was thinking like, oh,
what is this? I know right yeah, And then when
(30:34):
you get the hang of it, and now all of
a sudden, just you just started that crazy and at
bet you know, it's just um, the crossword prodecists blew
up after the way it did blow up, because now
we're still using cross world puzzles absolutely very much. Puzzles,
you know, uh, not as much, not as much I
as a as a kid, I enjoyed them a lot um,
(30:55):
but I didn't graduate to doing like the papers crossword
puzzles every morning. What about yourself? Did you did you crosswords?
Not as much now, just like you. But back in
the day, like when I used to be over my
grandma's and she used to do one part of the
cross word, I would go and do um some of them,
and she didn't want to. She would leave some of
them open, like the easy ones for me, so I
(31:17):
could like try to find them out and stuff. But yeah,
I haven't done them in a long time. I guess
I'm just trying to find the equivalent like games and
stuff that would be like that, like um pul Like, oh,
co course Testris. Were you a Tetris fan? A little bit?
Play a little bit of Tetris? Yeah yeah, yeah, it's fun.
It's a it's a fun game. Yeah yeah. Back to
(31:38):
the speed run, dude, I might people. Yeah, I saw
these guys doing a Tetris speed running. I'm just like,
how do you do that? Like you you really have
to think sometimes like five moves ahead, sometimes more than
that because I'm thinking, like, why don't you know, make
this line right here so you can um deleted. But no,
they were making all these huge um blocked and then
(32:01):
they'll have like one little stone they'll come down and
he would just like destroy, just like wow. Well we
got one final headline. Uh, and this is from the Guardian,
and the headline is crossword master reveals and puzzle that
he is dying of cancer. So uh, quietly the articles yeah,
So the article goes on to say that quietly, ingenuously
(32:21):
and of course cryptically, the beloved and sometimes feared crosswords
that are our Aquaria used one of his own crossword
puzzles to announce he was dying of cancer. The Reverend
John Graham, who has the pseudonym our Aquaria, which is
a pseudonym from the Latin term for the monkey puzzle tree,
told Guardian readers about his terminal illness and above cryptic
(32:41):
crossword number forty two sat a set of special instructions.
Our Acaria, it said, has eighteen down of the nineteen
which is being treated with thirteen fifteen. So those who
solved the puzzle found the answer to eighteen was cancer
to nineteen esophagus and to fifteen palliative care. The solutions
(33:02):
to some of the other clues were mcmilliner's stent endo
scopy and sunset And so at the time of this article,
he was kind of announcing this, and he was kind
of saying, like, you know, I've done crosswords for so
long and it seemed fitting, you know, for me to
do it U in this way. I thought that was
kind of like a bitter sweet story, you know, like,
(33:23):
of course sad that they're going through this, but nice
that they were able to use this medium to deal
with it. Like in a way, it was his version
of a poem, you know, of poetry of like how
he um of his situation, but just like you said,
through his medium. Mhm. But just um wow, just being
(33:43):
one of the people who like followed him, I'm just
picture of the folks who are we're doing the puzzle
and just figuring it out as they went. It's just like, wow,
this is crazy to hear. Apparently they got like support
and letters to as well, which I'm sure helped them
and eventually passed away at nine two. Obviously, like that
is sad and difficult, so anyway that you can deal
(34:05):
with it, I think it's a nice thing, and so
it was cool that they were able to deal with
it in this way. Yeah, and rest in peace with
absolutely for sure, for sure. But yeah it was bitter
sweet man. I think that's a great way to um
express your situations well or moving on to our final
segment called the Spring of Inspiring Inspiration, So this is
(34:26):
when we share an inspirational quote to end things on
a positive note. And today's quote comes from Erno Rubik,
who's the inventor of the Rubik's cube, and the quote
is a good puzzle. It's a fair thing. Nobody is lyne.
It's very clear, and the problem depends just on you.
So I thought that was nice, you know a way
(34:46):
to look at the puzzle. It's just like no line,
it's clear and you're in control, you know, control, take ownership. Yeah.
M m uh so, Rickie, thanks so much for dropping
by to talk about puzzles with me. I really appreciate it. Uh.
What are the best ways for people to stay in
touch with you? Support you following on social media at
Ricky random r I c K E y R A
N d O M one word on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube
(35:10):
and Pinterest. You know. Just check out my page. We
have a chance awesome. Please follow Ricky. Thank you for
being here, Ricky, and thank you listeners for tuning into
Ridiculous News. We know you have a lot of choices
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(35:48):
Ridiculous News is hosted by Mark Kendall and Bill Warley.
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Ridiculous News as a production of I Heart Radio and
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(00:20):
want to stay in touch with you all. So for
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News podcasts as well for updates. We would love to
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get to this amazing episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're amazing
(00:45):
and crazy topics to begin to choose, you would now
doing the antil ridiculous News, We're interesting viewers are working
to rule the broadcast them all sorts awhile be course,
the keep last brand of the journalism, the strange end,
the usual stories, and we gave it's all about ridiculous news.
Everywhere we tell about ridiculous ness. Hey, everyone, Welcome to
(01:07):
Ridiculous News, not your average news show. We cover stuff
you didn't realize was news, from the wild, funny, to
the deep and hidden to the absolutely ridiculous. I'm Mark Kendall.
I'm Atlanta based comedian and when I try doing puzzles,
my patients definitely gets tested. So if you haven't guessed already,
today is a deep dive all about puzzles. We're gonna
be talking about jigsaw puzzles. Maybe you will mention sudoku,
(01:29):
maybe that will come up, crossword puzzles and more. Uh.
My amazing co host Bill is the way today. But
we are joined by the incredible Ricky Boyton. Ricky is
a phenomenal actor and comedian who you may recognize from
the viral smash hit Too Many Cooks on Adult swim
Heels on the Stars Network, and his hilarious videos on
his at Ricky Random social media channels. Welcome Ricky, Hey,
thanks for having me back. Absolutely man, So every time
(01:51):
we got to guess, we have a segment called giving
them their flowers. And you know this is a very
specific compliment that alone makes sense to you and me, Ricky,
but man, thank you for reminding me of the Clive Owen,
uh classic movie. Just before we started recording, we were
just kind of talking about like movies, like action movies,
(02:13):
and you reminded me of Shoot Him Up. And I
remember seeing that in the movie theater for the first time.
It was so good. So anyway, thank you for thank
you for that memory. No problem anytime, man, anytime. I
love that movie. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. So today we're gonna
be talking about puzzles for our news nibbles we're gonna
hop into right now. These are all headlines related to
puzzles in some way. So this first article from the
(02:35):
BBC News from several years ago, the headline is Farndon
Parish Council order Sudoka grave to be removed. So the
widow of a mathematician has been told to remove a
Sudoka puzzle from his gravestone by the council. So the
Farndon Parish Council said the grave breached the standards for St.
Chad's Church graveyard. And I gotta say, I looked at
(02:57):
the picture of this stone and I thought it was
totally fine. You know, I don't know what their standards aren't,
but uh, Mrs Robinson, the widow said, other graves I've
seen have a dolphin and even a deck of cards.
So if they can remain, why can't this. Uh. Mr Robinson,
who died at the age of sixty six, had worked
(03:18):
as a numerical analyst and had not given any instructions
about his grave when he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
So Mrs Robinson said, I just thought this would be
a good tribute to him, and I think that's really nice.
She goes on to say, we were talking about a
two inch square Sudoku puzzle and a one line mathematical
equation because my husband was a mathematician and did a
(03:39):
lot of Sadoka puzzles. Mrs Robinson said the stonemason did
not realize they had a duty to consult the parish council. Wait,
it's wrong with that. It's that's nice, that's pretty cool.
You know to put the putting that on the on
the on the stone form like you know the person
us is so you know he was a mathematician, Like
they say, you know that, there's a great way to
(04:00):
honor him. But I'll understand what the huge problem is. Well,
the Paris Council said that the stone was against regulations
and had to be removed. So one of the parish
counselors sue Rowlands and said that it contravenes the guidelines
that we laid down a couple of years before this
particular gravestone was made, and so they went on to
say that they were becoming concerned about the inappropriateness of
(04:23):
some of the things that we're appearing on the headstones.
So I guess they're trying to agree to a set
of guidelines that there would only be simple inscriptions, and
so I think that maybe there unfortunately they're kind of
using this particular gravestone as an example. I'm not sure now.
At the time of this article was written, this was
several years ago, it looked like they were going to
(04:43):
continue to discuss the matter. So it's not necessarily a
close and check case. So hopefully it changed for the better.
But I guess maybe in their particular cemetery they didn't
want customization. But to me, it's just like you got
to let people deal with that how they want to,
you know, said, yeah, and what is wrong with the dooku?
Like what, I think it's great? I never really play
(05:07):
the dookus, right so, but I don't know, what are
you afraid that you're like, um, spill out a phrase
that's like inappropriate to someone like that, like you know,
I don't know, you know what whatever. Yeah, I can't
imagine what would be wrong with the very small sudoku
puzzle that's on the gravestone, as you know, something that
that person would have enjoyed. But I'm thinking that that council,
(05:30):
I'm just picturing them, um, not being great at math
in high school, right right, and being triggered by it
until they yeah, yeah, but let's let that person live
in peace, man. That's that's something to honor them, you know.
And you said, you said, like you know, they had
animals like dolphins on other ones and stuff like that.
(05:51):
Or it could be a situation where they wanted to
take something that was like the the mildest, you know,
the softest type of situation and start with that to
show them night and look we mean business, like if
we will take this one now, we'll take that down
to It could be like that type of warning shot
but still dull cool alone. Absolutely, I agree. Yeah yeah uh.
(06:16):
This next headlines from The Guardian saying literary puzzle solved
for just the third time in almost one hundred years.
So this story is pretty wild. Okay. So one of
the world's most fiendish literary puzzles, which is a murder
mystery in which all the pages are out of order,
has been solved for just the third time in almost
a century at the time of this article was written.
(06:37):
So Kane's job Bone was dreamed up by The Observer's
first cryptic crossword inventor, Edward Powis Mathers, who was known
as the Porkinmata. This book was first published in ninety four.
It invites the reader to reorder the books one hundred pages,
which is the number of possible combinations, is a figure
(06:57):
with one hundred fifty eight digits, and solved the murders
within so. John Finnimore, British comedy writer and creator of
radio fource Cabin Pressure, said Kane's jaw Bone was far
and away the most difficult puzzle he had ever tried. Uh.
They went on to say that the first time I
opened the box, I swiftly concluded that it was way
out of my league, and the only way I'd even
(07:19):
have a shot at it was if I were for
some bizarre reason trapped in my own home for months
on end, with nowhere to go and no one to see. Unfortunately,
the universe heard me, he said, uh, he said. It
took about four months, not continuously, but I had it
spread out on the spare bed and every so often
I potter in. Sorry, potter in was just like a
(07:42):
funny British phrasing that I thought was interesting. I potter in,
stared at it till my forehead bled, spent an hour
online researching the history of Shrewsbury Prison or something. Swapped
three cards, move one back, and potter off again. There's
that word potter off. Anyway, how anyone solved it before
the Internet I cannot begin to imagine. So I thought
that was really interesting. Dude, that doesn't sound like fun
(08:05):
at all. No, why why would you? Why would you
do that? Well, I think part of it was he
was part of He was one of twelve people they
got asked to try and solve this puzzle, and it
was during the pandemic, So I think it was kind
of a thing where they were stuck at home and
you know, they had this impossible puzzle, and so maybe
(08:28):
it was the kind of thing like the only time
I would do it is if I was really stuck
at home. So I guess that's probably what happened with
this person. But the people who were able to solve it,
what did they receive? So he was the only one
of the twelve at the time that was able to
solve the puzzle, and I think he got a thousand
pounds in respect. So okay, yeah, because like if they
(08:50):
just got a T shirt up, but somebody would be
piste off. I like, I mean, it kind of reminds
me kind of like the and some like the escape
room type scenarios where you have to figure this one
part out just to go to the next next part.
I've never been to an actual escape room, but I've
seen it like on um, I'm be honest, I've watched
(09:12):
like escape room video games until YouTube before, and just
to it makes you like really fake, not just like
stuff you learn in school, but also like you know, um,
common sense and street smart. It's just like all that
connected just to figure out the next uh situation. I
think that's like so cool. Do you have do you
(09:33):
have you been to an escape room? You know? I
have not. Actually the closest thing I've done to an
escape room, which wasn't really an escape room at all.
So in Atlanta they had the Stranger Things experience come
through town. Have you heard about this? And so part
of the experience is they kind of it's more of
like an immersive theater experience to be honest. But sometimes
you are quote unquote trapped in a room and you
(09:56):
and everyone there has to do some sort of like
stranger things that ativity to get out. But it's not
like a puzzle that you solved. But that's the closest
I've been to an escape room truly. No, I still
I think that's I consider I can escape room situations.
It was. It was a lot of fun. It was
a lot of fun, but it wasn't like we were
really collaborating on like a puzzle or we didn't have
(10:16):
to find a clue, but it was it was moderately interactive.
You know. Yeah. Um, the only reason I haven't been
to one because I'm afraid of that's gonna be like
a situation where things I don't know, like you know,
how do remember from school? Like, Oh, I'm stuck right here,
so I guess I'm gonna get bitten by the zombie. Um,
(10:37):
you know, I guess it being too hard, but at
the same time you don't want it to be too easy.
So yeah, but I always thought that was pretty cool
though I agree. I agree. So this next one from
today dot Com by Anna Chan and the headline is
college student loses Wheel of Fortune puzzle with all letters
revealed And so I went and watched this video and
(10:59):
it's tough. So the article says Wheel of Fortune can
offer up some mind boggling puzzles, but when an entire
phrase is spelled out, contestants generally have no trouble solving.
But that wasn't true for player at Julian Batts, who
some viewers are now calling the worst player in the
history of the show. So yeah, I watched the video.
(11:22):
It is tough, but I wouldn't call the worst player
in the history of the show. He was he was
doing his best. So what happened was he was playing
Wheel of Fortune, he was spinning, he was getting all
the letters, and then sure enough all the letters were revealed,
like it was completely full, and the solution was mythological
hero Achilles, right, but instead he said it chill Us,
(11:47):
mythological hero, and so then he got the buzzer and
so the round then went to the person next to him.
That's just like said it correctly, and so I didn't
realize this, but one of the rules for Wheel of
Fortune is when a contestant tries to solve a puzzle,
they must pronounce it using the generally accepted pronunciation, and
(12:10):
a spokesperson from the game show told that to today.
The thing is, though it worked out, I mean, he
won eleven thousand, seven hundred dollars and made it to
the bonus round to that, so he was still successful,
but that was an embarrassing gaff. So I hate to
say this, but it's kind of tough to convince people
(12:30):
that you shouldn't have lost that because one of the
main things to go on Will of Fortunation, you didn't
learn how to know how to spell right right right. Yeah,
I'm not the best I spelled of myself, so I
know I would never be on that show. But I'm like,
and I think spelling aside. It's just like, you got
these lights cameras on you. He could have been nervous,
(12:52):
you know. I think it's probably nerves Like if you
were to ask him the next day, do you know
what an achilles is or have you heard about the
mythological you know, or have you heard about the mythical
hero Achilles. They'd probably be like, yeah, you know, but
in that moment, they just kind of flubbed it, And
you're right, and in the video. I continue to watch
the video, he had other similar clubs, so I think
(13:13):
he was just probably in his head. So yeah, and
you're right not to not to mention. You know, there's
uh studio, live studio audience, and then you got cameras
and then you know, so many a lot of people
watch the Fortune. Yeah, so yeah, so yeah, I just
gotta sucks. Yeah, but you know he's still got like
eleven grand, so yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know
(13:36):
it's just like for Eleving Grand. Hey, I'll be embarrassed
for Eleving Grand for sure. Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna take
a quick break to hero words from our sponsor. Yeah yeah,
amazing and crazy comics to ridiculous news. All right, y'all,
(13:57):
we're back. We're still talking about puzzles. I'm joined by
Ricky Boynton and so Rickie, let's talk about jigsaw puzzles. Right,
so you probably recognize those. That's when you get a
box you put these pieces that fit together. So this
article from CBS News had a little bit of info
on the history of how this particular kind of puzzle
came to be. So, the very first jigsaw puzzle is
said to have been made by London map maker John
(14:20):
Spillsbury in the seventeen sixties. Uh So and Williams is
a jigsaw puzzle historian and author of the Jigsaw Puzzle
Piecing Together a History. And they said that he pasted
a map onto a thin piece of wood and he
used a scroll saw to cut it up. England would
be one piece, Germany would be another piece. And so
he marketed these to the very affluent and influential people
(14:43):
as a tool to teach their children geography. Oh that's cool,
that is cool. Yeah. So then by the time we
get to the twentieth century, gaming company Parker Brothers came
up with the idea of interlocking pieces, each one cut
by hand, mostly uh and Williams says, by women. So
Parker Brothers claimed that it hired women because they already
(15:05):
knew how to sew uh so, that they were easy
to train. But they didn't mention that they could pay
the women a lot less. So that probably was the
actual motivation. I already guess it does. It does. But
um so, what's interesting though about these puzzles. Right about
jagsaw puzzles. It was during the Great Depression that the
popularity of jigsaw puzzles exploded. So, according to Williams, thirty
(15:29):
million households in the United States were absorbing ten million
jigsaw puzzles every week. Good man, I know, right, I mean,
but we think about it now. If you if you
go to anyone's house, at least they have at least
one jigsaw puzzle, you know, whether it was they bought
it themselves or it was you know, passed down from
(15:50):
like their their parents and grandparents or whatever. But every
person's house I've been to, I've always seen at least
one jigsaw puzzles. So that makes a lot of sense. Yeah,
So this talks about how puzzles were both entertainment and employment.
So there were so many people out of work at
the time. And this is from Williams again. You could
buy the equipment that you needed to make them for
(16:11):
twenty bucks or so. So they set up a saw
in their kitchen or their basement and they started making
these puzzles and selling them to their neighbors are renting
them out through the local drug store, which I never
knew it was super interesting. That is that is really
cool man. Um and it just also makes me also
think about just the business of like making toys, you
(16:32):
know what I mean, like puzzles or um dolls and
action figures or things like that. Um. Yeah, and I
always thought it was cool. Um. There's a series on Netflix.
I forgot what I think it's called, Um have you
seen it or something like that. They're talking about how
the first series of the first season I believe, was
(16:54):
about how different movies got made like Frantans a Robot,
cub Um, Baby Hills, cod stuff like that. But there's
also a series where it was all about toys that yes,
the toys that movie, the movies that made us in
the toys there we go on the toys that made it.
But you know exactly what I'm talking about, just like
how these franchises started, and then just seeing that documentary
(17:18):
of just a simple idea like that that's exploding. And
you know, the puzzle has been here for so long.
You said it was started with the SEV Dreds. Well,
the Jigsaw Puzzle goes back to the seventeen sixties. Yeah, yeah,
so like and to this day people are still doing puzzles. Now.
(17:38):
One thing I love about puzzles is, um the fact
that you have to have patients to do to actually
solve a puzzle, whether it's like one of those actual
puzzles or like you know, some kind of uh riddle
or whatever. But yeah, you actually have to have patience
to do that. So, um, I guess it can be
like very soothing for people who can be like, um,
(17:58):
there a form of therapy. Well, it's actually interesting that
you mentioned that because I said what was really nicely
into the next story and this is from wire dot
com by Zoe Hannah, and the headline is why you
gravitate to puzzles when you're depressed and so and it's
not just when you're depressed, but why puzzles can be calming.
The article goes on to explain more, where it says
that according to London based trauma therapist Olivia James, it
(18:21):
doesn't matter what format your puzzles come in, Solving them
feels good because it offers a sense of control and satisfaction.
She goes on to say that what's so satisfying about
puzzles is that there are no surprises. Nothing unexpected is
going to happen in a puzzle. So focusing such that
your mind is occupied but not excessively challenged, James says,
(18:45):
is incredibly helpful for people with depression, anxiety, and stress
because it offers what she describes as a little holiday
from yourself. So for some people this quote gentle focus
takes the form of tending to a garden, were tidying
a room. On others, puzzles filled the space. Yeah, um,
(19:07):
in the way way it keeps you present, you know,
it keeps you like you said, what keeps you focused?
That makes a lot of sense because also um then
they say like crossword puzzles or those type of puzzles,
um are good for like people like for like dementia, believe.
So I think it's definitely like helps your brain for sure.
And you also see a lot of um. And then
(19:28):
we were growing up, you always see like your grandparents
are always doing some kind of puzzle where it was
the doku or a cross web puzzle, what um word
search or whatever. So it makes a lot of sense.
But yeah, man, that's so cool to hear that it
helps out with mentally, it helps get your mental health.
And like, you know, you don't really think about it
that that way. You just go and do it. But
(19:49):
I guess why you're in it, you know, that's when
you're like that less, you're less focused on the situation
that you're dealing with. I guess inmorality. Um. So yeah,
have you always been always been good with like puzzle
and um, any type of puzzle. So I definitely remember
playing them as a kid. More recently, I've tried some
like more challenging puzzles and sometimes it's relaxing, sometimes it's
(20:12):
it's frustrating. And the article kind of touches on that sum.
So this article from wire dot com goes on to
say that the effectiveness of puzzles as a coping mechanism
depends greatly on how challenging the puzzle is for each player.
And that's again according to trauma therapist James, it's about
finding the right balance between challenging and feasible. It can't
(20:34):
be so hard that you get frustrated and down on yourself,
but it can't be so easy that you get bored
or distracted by other thoughts while playing. And so I've
gotten a jigsaw puzzle recently. It's like a thousand pieces
and it's very satisfying when you find the pieces that fit. However,
this particular puzzle that I'm working on might be just
(20:56):
a bit too challenging because I find myself getting frustrated
and walking away. But like we said, there's a bunch
of different types of puzzles. And have you ever played
Uncharted before? It is a video game. I have not
played Uncharted back seen it so Uncharted it's like half
action and also like half puzzles, and the difficulty level
(21:19):
is like it's challenging, but I'm able to figure it
out eventually kind of and that's sort of the sweet spot.
So if I could find like that level of difficulty
but for a jigsaw puzzle, I think I'd be really
I'd be that that would be a very relaxing activity.
Right now, it's just kind of frustrating and I sort
of power through it, you know. But with the next
(21:39):
puzzle that I get, I think I need to get
one that's just like slightly easier. Do you think all
video games of puzzles? Um, that's a weird question, but no,
that's a good question though. I mean, I guess on
some level because you got to figure out a way too.
I guess you adapt to that situation or figure out
a way how to Yeah, I guess it kind of
depends on your definition of what a puzzle is, you know,
(22:00):
because it's just like you can play like NBA two K, right,
and like basketball isn't exactly a puzzle, but you do
have to figure out where to place certain players or
when to shoot, and so there's like I would imagine
puzzle solving mechanics going on in your brain. But I
think a lot of video games are just straight up
puzzle stuff for sure, because I'm thinking, like, um, well,
(22:21):
I guess it's more specifically like Uncharted, what kind of
games that consider um and please don't hurt me if
I get this wrong, is that considered RPG? UM? I
don't think so. I think it's more of just like
an action game. That's how I think of it, because
I see I see it like the same vein as
um tomb Raider. Yeah, yeah, and stuff like that, And
(22:42):
you know, I like how you know, you can't just
automatically just beat up somebody and just go to the
next level. You have to figure out how to get
out of this trap, how to survive this situation? And
I really like games like that, but I also like
the fighting part aspects of it too, so um, like,
for instance, I've really enjoyed the God of War. Oh
(23:02):
that looks fun. Yeah, yeah, have you play? Have you
haven't played any of those? A little bit? I haven't
gotten very far, Like I wasn't very I wasn't very
good when I started playing. But it looks awesome. I've
watched a lot of it. Like, but I'll do is
if a video game gets too hard me and I
like get stuck, I'll go on YouTube and watch people
that are better than me so I can see what
the levels look like ahead and I've done yeah yeah,
(23:29):
and come like, ding, how do I get past the
seagulls or the vultures or whatever? And then you're like, oh, okay,
yeah yeah, I will be honest. Um, when I'm not
playing a game, um, I would like to see I
do like watching speed runs. M that's what For those
(23:49):
who know, a speed run is basically someone beating trying
to beat the game as fast as they can, but
usually there's a record that they're trying to break. So yeah,
but I like watching them, just to see how they
all these little cheats that they have a little ways
of getting around this and this, like oh, you can
take damage here, but help you go farther. You're like, what, Yeah,
(24:09):
that's I just love watching stuff like that. I think
it's I think it's so much fun. And I would
love to see the people who created the game watch
somebody do a speed run. Oh I didn't know about
that glitch right there. Yeah, okay, but yeah, I've always
been a fan of those two. Oh you know, speaking
of speed runs. So there's this person that did Rubik's
(24:30):
Cubes and they were really really good, and they would
like perform by doing Rubik's Cubes in front of an audience.
And I don't just mean like you watch them and
over the course of four or five minutes they put
together a Rubik's Cube. I mean like, no, they'll be
like blindfolded and like in each hand they'll do a
Rubik's Cube with both hands, or it's like they'll do
a Rubik's Cube in one hand by doing something else
with another hand. It was fascinating, but that it was
(24:53):
like a real life speed run, but instead of a
video game, was for Rubik's Cube. Okay, So here's my
question with that. Yeahum, I guess with the the part
when the performance was blindfolded, Yeah, I guess. Rubist cubes
they're supposed to automatically come in like a certain um form.
(25:14):
And what I mean by that is like, um, it's
it's out of whack how it is, how it's like, Um,
you know, I have never bought a Rubi cube, so
I don't know. You mean like if it comes already
put together, if it comes already mixed up, already mixed up.
There trying to say, um, already mixed up? Is there
like a certain format of it being mixed up. I'm
just trying to figure out how would they be able
to do it blindfolded? Like do our certain colors feel
(25:38):
different on the cube, because otherwise I don't know. But
I I saw him do it. I saw him blinded.
You know, I believe it. It's just I didn't know
if there was like a certain way they was automatically
mixed up and then they would memorize the routine of
how to get it back to I think that I
(26:01):
don't know either. I don't know what it was either.
He either, he knew how each color felt or he memorized.
Exactly how he did it, I don't know, but it
was like it was fascinating. Yeah. Yeah, we will be
right back with more ridiculous news after this short break.
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. Don't here to confuse ridiculous news.
(26:27):
All right, y'all, we're back. Got a few more interesting
stories about puzzles here. This next one is from BBC
News and this one was interesting. So we've talked about
Ruby's ques, we talked about crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles. This
is uh an interesting type of jigsaw puzzle. So again,
this is from BBC News and it says that Ted
Howard wrote letters to Molly during the seven years he
(26:51):
spent traveling Europe as a farm worker. When she found
someone reading them in nineteen fifty three, she tore them up,
so Ted again, putting the pieces back together, and completed
the puzzle in two thousand eight, three years after his
wife died. He wrote the love letters on hotel writing
paper as he traveled the UK, Ireland, France and Holland
(27:13):
in the late forties in early fifties, but his wife
tore each one into more than twenty pieces, creating more
than two thousand fragments, some smaller than a thumbnail. Wow,
but he got all of them. He pieced them back together,
piece them back together. Yeah, and these were love letters
that he had written to her through through the years. Yeah,
(27:35):
and he said she would if somebody else random, she
would tear him up. Well, that's what was kind of
unclear in the article. It seemed like something happened where
she found someone else reading these love letters and I
don't know what caused her to tear them up, but
but that's what she did. So, um, so I don't
know what led to that, but that's but that's what happened. Yeah,
(27:58):
but that's that's awesome though, the fact that he was
able to find all those fragments and post them back together,
and it's unds like the ultimate romantic love story, you
know what I mean. Yeah, so it was It's kind
of wild to think that, you know, after this person
that you've loved has passed away, and and as you're
kind of like dealing with them no longer being there,
(28:19):
you're piecing together and literally being reminded of how you
felt about this person, you know, and two thousand pieces
that's a lot, you know, Like that's a lot, and
it's not like I mean, these are letters, so it's
not actually like jigsaw puzzles that are meant to be
put together. Um, he's like trying to figure this out.
(28:42):
I'm surprised that he did it, frankly, yeah, And like
what what if? Like as I was just thinking, like
what if a piece came up missing or what if
a piece uh fell in like a little bit of water,
And for him to be able to find every single
piece and put it together, I'm just amazed by that man,
just the patients. But it also shows, you know, how
(29:03):
much you truly meant to him, you know what I mean.
Which and that's really cool man. You know, it's a
you know, weird way than not kind of be coin
anybody's like, you know I love Conquers Hall yeah type. Yeah.
But it was yeah, like you said, two thousand pieces,
that's a lot. It's a lot of pieces. You had
a lot of You had to have a lot of
patients to do that, man, And how do you start
(29:26):
how do you find Like I don't know, I'm and
I'm like like, yeah, I'm curious because it's just like
all the pieces had to have been together and they
must have been left in that place and it seems
like pretty wild story. So for this next headline, it
deals with crossword puzzles. But before we talk about this
crossword puzzle story, I wanted to share some interesting facts
(29:48):
about crossword puzzles and so this comes from words with
Friends dot com. Uh and it just listed some interesting
crossword puzzle facts. Wife pick something that I thought were interesting.
So the very first crossword puzzle ever published was in
New York World in nine, though the origins of the
crossword puzzle itself stretched back for several hundred years earlier
(30:10):
and can't be perfectly pinpointed. The very first time a
crossword puzzle was mass distributed to the public came on
December twenty one using the name word cross That's really cool, man,
Um just picturing you know, the people when they first
saw the first crossword puzzle and was thinking like, oh,
what is this? I know right yeah, And then when
(30:34):
you get the hang of it, and now all of
a sudden, just you just started that crazy and at
bet you know, it's just um, the crossword prodecists blew
up after the way it did blow up, because now
we're still using cross world puzzles absolutely very much. Puzzles,
you know, uh, not as much, not as much I
as a as a kid, I enjoyed them a lot um,
(30:55):
but I didn't graduate to doing like the papers crossword
puzzles every morning. What about yourself? Did you did you crosswords?
Not as much now, just like you. But back in
the day, like when I used to be over my
grandma's and she used to do one part of the
cross word, I would go and do um some of them,
and she didn't want to. She would leave some of
them open, like the easy ones for me, so I
(31:17):
could like try to find them out and stuff. But yeah,
I haven't done them in a long time. I guess
I'm just trying to find the equivalent like games and
stuff that would be like that, like um pul Like, oh,
co course Testris. Were you a Tetris fan? A little bit?
Play a little bit of Tetris? Yeah yeah, yeah, it's fun.
It's a it's a fun game. Yeah yeah. Back to
(31:38):
the speed run, dude, I might people. Yeah, I saw
these guys doing a Tetris speed running. I'm just like,
how do you do that? Like you you really have
to think sometimes like five moves ahead, sometimes more than
that because I'm thinking, like, why don't you know, make
this line right here so you can um deleted. But no,
they were making all these huge um blocked and then
(32:01):
they'll have like one little stone they'll come down and
he would just like destroy, just like wow. Well we
got one final headline. Uh, and this is from the Guardian,
and the headline is crossword master reveals and puzzle that
he is dying of cancer. So uh, quietly the articles yeah,
So the article goes on to say that quietly, ingenuously
(32:21):
and of course cryptically, the beloved and sometimes feared crosswords
that are our Aquaria used one of his own crossword
puzzles to announce he was dying of cancer. The Reverend
John Graham, who has the pseudonym our Aquaria, which is
a pseudonym from the Latin term for the monkey puzzle tree,
told Guardian readers about his terminal illness and above cryptic
(32:41):
crossword number forty two sat a set of special instructions.
Our Acaria, it said, has eighteen down of the nineteen
which is being treated with thirteen fifteen. So those who
solved the puzzle found the answer to eighteen was cancer
to nineteen esophagus and to fifteen palliative care. The solutions
(33:02):
to some of the other clues were mcmilliner's stent endo
scopy and sunset And so at the time of this article,
he was kind of announcing this, and he was kind
of saying, like, you know, I've done crosswords for so
long and it seemed fitting, you know, for me to
do it U in this way. I thought that was
kind of like a bitter sweet story, you know, like,
(33:23):
of course sad that they're going through this, but nice
that they were able to use this medium to deal
with it. Like in a way, it was his version
of a poem, you know, of poetry of like how
he um of his situation, but just like you said,
through his medium. Mhm. But just um wow, just being
(33:43):
one of the people who like followed him, I'm just
picture of the folks who are we're doing the puzzle
and just figuring it out as they went. It's just like, wow,
this is crazy to hear. Apparently they got like support
and letters to as well, which I'm sure helped them
and eventually passed away at nine two. Obviously, like that
is sad and difficult, so anyway that you can deal
(34:05):
with it, I think it's a nice thing, and so
it was cool that they were able to deal with
it in this way. Yeah, and rest in peace with
absolutely for sure, for sure. But yeah it was bitter
sweet man. I think that's a great way to um
express your situations well or moving on to our final
segment called the Spring of Inspiring Inspiration, So this is
(34:26):
when we share an inspirational quote to end things on
a positive note. And today's quote comes from Erno Rubik,
who's the inventor of the Rubik's cube, and the quote
is a good puzzle. It's a fair thing. Nobody is lyne.
It's very clear, and the problem depends just on you.
So I thought that was nice, you know a way
(34:46):
to look at the puzzle. It's just like no line,
it's clear and you're in control, you know, control, take ownership. Yeah.
M m uh so, Rickie, thanks so much for dropping
by to talk about puzzles with me. I really appreciate it. Uh.
What are the best ways for people to stay in
touch with you? Support you following on social media at
Ricky random r I c K E y R A
N d O M one word on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube
(35:10):
and Pinterest. You know. Just check out my page. We
have a chance awesome. Please follow Ricky. Thank you for
being here, Ricky, and thank you listeners for tuning into
Ridiculous News. We know you have a lot of choices
of what to listen to, so we say this genuinely
thank you. You can also email us at Ridiculous News
at by heart media dot com and on Facebook and
i G You can follow Ridiculous News and you can
check out our comedy videos at Mark Kendall. Comedy by
(35:48):
Ridiculous News is hosted by Mark Kendall and Bill Warley.
Executive producers are Ben Bolland and Noel Brown, produced and
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