Here are True and False personified.  But how can you tell them apart?

(The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

It's a trick question, becuase "True and false are in fact interchangeable depending upon the perspective and context of their affirmation, but such that for every false proposition there is always a possible world for which it is true.  And vice-versa." —Romano Madera and Luigi Vero Tarca, Philosophy As Life Path, 2008

Moon Fish Ocean is our whimsical Zen version of "Rock Paper Scissors."  You can play the game online at the official website.

Here's a fun tip for taking the game on the road:

Use Moon Fish Ocean to navigate the maze of pathways in a formal garden (especially a garden with a koi pond!). You and your companion should throw a hand gesture at each crossroad or forked path. If the person on the left wins, go left. If the person on the right wins, go right. If it's a tie, continue walking straight ahead (or throw another round in the case of only two choices of direction). The game is guaranteed to lead you to all sorts of beautiful areas of the gardens you didn't know about, simply because you would never have gone down certain (less eye-enticing) paths. So Moon Fish Ocean can serve as a form of navigation in which Lady Luck dictates the itinerary.

A visitor asks:

It is not clear to me what makes this conducive to meditation. Is it being so focused on the activity that all else is put aside?

Like "walking meditation," Moon Fish Ocean can be a form of meditation in action, in which the experience of game play is the focus of heightened awareness.

Here's a roll of the dice from Diccionario Enciclopedico Hispano-Americano de Literatura, Siencias y Artes, 1887.  See also our guide to Astragalomancy (finally released from private circulation in the magical underground), which reveals for the first time the secret meanings of 21 discrete dice throws.

Futility Closet published an old riddle (dating back to the late 1700s) that has remained unsolved to this day.  We suggest that the answer might be hiding in plain sight.  Here's the riddle:

In the morn when I rise, / I open my eyes, / Tho’ I ne’er sleep a wink all night;
If I wake e’er so soon, / I still lie till noon, / And pay no regard to the light.

I have loss, I have gain, / I have pleasure, and pain; / And am punished with many a stripe;
To diminish my woe, / I burn friend and foe, / And my evenings I end with a pipe.

I travel abroad. / And ne’er miss my road, / Unless I am met by a stranger;
If you come in my way, / Which you very well may, / You will always be subject to danger.

I am chaste, I am young, / I am lusty, and strong, / And my habits oft change in a day;
To court I ne’er go, / Am no lady nor beau, / Yet as frail and fantastic as they.

I live a short time, / I die in my prime, / Lamented by all who possess me;
If I add any more, / To what’s said before / I’m afraid you will easily guess me.

Here's our answer, in black text on a black background.  Highlight to view:  A flame "rises" as it is lit, though it doesn't sleep because it is not technically alive.  The eye is a reference to the eye-shaped blue part of the flame, at the wick, that burns the coolest.  It gives pleasure and pain (romantic candlelight and burns to the skin of both friend and foe).  It's punished with many a stripe (uniformed firemen beating down the flames).  It ends its evenings with a pipe (lighting the tobacco, of course).  It never misses its road (the pathway it travels as it consumes fuel) unless met by a stranger (water is a stranger to fire).  It never goes to court because it isn't a person, though it is as refined and dazzling as royalty.  It is lamented by those who possess (hold) it, for it burns.  Its habits change often in a day, as candles, ovens, and hearths are lit for different occasions.  It lives a short time (not really such a thing as an eternal flame).  It has losses and gains — the yields of lost wax.

"Yes, an entire picture comes forth as you connect the dots." —Daveta Brown, Are You Ready for the Frontline?

"Jamie, we are both playing a false game," from The Flower of Gala Water and Other Stories by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, 1895.

In the game Grand Theft Auto V, members of a Scientology-like cult called Epsilon pray to the god Kifflom. We can offer an internet exclusive in answering "What does Kifflom mean?" The sounds of Kifflom, spoken backwards, intone the word malefic (from the Latin meaning ill-doing).  Note that the "kiff" at the beginning of Kifflom is the "fic" of malefic, backwards.  The "lom" at the end of the Kifflom is the the "mal" at the beginning of malefic.  

Tien (heaven in Chinese) into Neit (Egyptian goddess)

Mitra (Persian Venus) into Artim (the Greek Artimis)

Rama (love in Sanscrit) into Amor (love in Latin)

Dipuc (love in Sanscrit) into Cupid (Latin)

Chlom (crown in Coptic) into Moloch (king in Hebrew)

Sar (chief in Persian) into Ras (chief in Arabic and Hebrew)

Jonathan Caws-Elwitt quips, "Looks like 'scissors cuts paper' to me!  I see that the judge's ruling on that play was overturned."

"It's such a comfort to play an ace, isn't it." —Ermentine Poole Long

Aaron Tucker has created this amazing site, Chessbard which translates chess games into poetry. You can play classic games, play a game against a chessbot, or modify games. The site then 'translates' the game into poems: both a White poem and a Black poem. Aaron has also written an essay about the project and its development.

I was delighted to be able to contribute to the site. I created some poems (by modifying a classic game) and wrote a discussion about what I did and about chess in general. Read it here.

Really fascinating.

And while you're thinking about chess, definitely check out the very lovely, Calvino-Chess Dictionary by Craig Conley. You can buy the book or read it online. I'd recommend the book!

David Levin has said that "The real contest is how we play against ourselves.  There's always that other side of each of us, pulling us down."

The caption of our illustration reads, "He was annihilated every game."  It's from A Ramble Round the Globe by Baron Dewar, 1894.

"Watching the skittle players," from In the Ardennes by Katharine Sarah Macquoid, 1881.

"The Heart of the Mystery": an illustration from a 1902 issue of The Reader magazine.

The problem with this puzzle we encountered is that the blank dominoes aren't missing values at all.  Zero is a real number which quantifies a count or an amount of null size.

"The key is to remember that there are really more people in the room than you can see."

Who is speaking: a psychic or a trial lawyer?

Answer: Daniel Small, Preparing Witnesses: A Practical Guide for Lawyers and their Clients (2004), p. 47 (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Jollification expert Bernie DeKoven highlights our oddest work yet — a book that transforms other books in surprising ways.  As we confabulated with Bernie:

The Dictionary Game (see also Fictionary) turns a serious reference book into a gaming generator; the dictionary is playfully transformed from a tool for decoding puzzling words into a puzzle-making machine, where whimsically fake definitions take the stage.  But could any book, spontaneously pulled off the shelf, be transformed into a playfulness machine?  Could one’s entire home library be a gaming center?  That’s the lofty goal of a new publication that offers, among other oddities, cut-out paper spectacles for seeing more than is readily apparent in any book.

Please note that our Machinarium Verbosus is a book for the few—the very few.  If it’s important to one’s psychological well-being that the machinations of the Universe be neat and tidy and wholly comprehensible by the human mind, then absolutely do not proceed with this book’s experiments.  Let this constitute a very serious warning: do not take these experiments lightly, as any one of them may induce an existential crisis.