Hodgman! from ormondsacker

I've dipped into him before, but I've only now got around to reading John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise cover to cover. His style seems oddly... I don't know the word, exactly. Take for instance these trivia facts he studs the book with.

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Were You Aware That:

Jorge Luis Borges was editor of Games magazine from 1980 to 1981?
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[narrows eyes]

Ok, that's not on.

As a matter of fact I was, there, Chirpy-boy. I was only a tot at the time, but I've perused a few of his Labyrinths and Diversions columns via back issue, and let me tell you, they're a constant delight. "A Philosophical History of Conundrums", "Some Fresh Combat Among Letters", "The Illusory Dilemma of the Four Railroads"..... His long-form review "The Hungarian Rubik In His Shifting World" was quoted extensively in promotional materials and at least two commercial voice-overs. (Disappointingly, this piece is not included in the otherwise authoritative Penguin Classics Selected Non-Fictions of Borges).

Borges also contributed several puzzles from his own hand, most notoriously his series of 4-star cryptic crosswords, whose murderous difficulty is still a small inside joke in the industry. (I overconfidently brought one on a team trip to Iowa once - stared at it for twenty-five minutes, filled in the second clue, and put it away.) But also there were word searches, a logic puzzle, and the "Frames of Refence" maze reprinted in the GAMES Big Book of Games II. (Solvers traveled through a series of connected rooms, paying a specified fine to pass through yellow barriers and altering their teleological world view to pass through red. The only correct solution left you with 25 cents and the conviction that "spirit" cannot be distinguished from the unconscious mind.)

In his waning days, Borges dictated a final letter to the magazine that had employed him so briefly and memorably. "I am forever grateful for the opportunity I had to be master at your revels, to spend these waning years disporting with your myriad intellects in our vast mutual game of language. Good night, my dear friends. Also, on page 23, 31 across, "Heresiarch of Constantinople's godhead" should be DIUNE."

His estate was awarded a free GAMES t-shirt.

Published by :ormondsacker 2008-02-11 04:23:18.0