"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.

This puzzle encodes a familiar expression. Can you decode it?

Hint: The expression originated in the armed forces.

Answer: "All present and accounted for." The circle represents "all." The wrapped gift is a "present." And the fingers are "a-counting four." (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

(The following is our Guest Blog post for DeepFun.com)

The classic hand game of Rock-Paper-Scissors has a shadow side — quite literally. It’s played partially in the dark. Each move casts shadows on the wall. And the rules are reversed to whimsical results.

Requirements:

• a blank wall – a canvas for shadow-casting
• a lamp easily turned off and on (the sole illumination in the room)
• two handy players
• one scorekeeper/storyteller (scorekeeping is optional, a player may act as scorekeeper, especially if the lamp has a foot-operated switch)
• spectators (occupancy not to exceed fire marshall’s restrictions, of course) (also optional)

When the scorekeeper initiates darkness, each player opaquely forms one of three hand gestures in front of the lamp. At the count of three, the scorekeeper lets there be light, and the gesticulative shadows are writ large on the wall.

The so-called Rock is actually a Paperweight.

The so-called Paper is actually a Paper Doll (a butterfly, a bunny, a goat, or any other hand shadow figure the player desires)

The so-called Scissors are still cutting blades, but let’s call them Snippers just to be different.

Traditional Game	Shadow Game
Paper covers the Rock	Paperweight sensibly covers the Paper Doll and the Paperweight wins.
Scissors cut the Paper	Paper Doll is born of the Snippers and the Paper Doll wins.
Rock crushes the Scissors	Paperweight *sharpens* the Snippers and the Snippers win.

As a mnemonic, Snippers *need* to be sharp in order to fulfill their destiny, Paper Dolls *need* to be snipped in order to take shape and fulfill their destiny, and Paperweights *need* to rest upon Paper Dolls because everyone requires downtime to flatten out, relax, and recharge so as to fulfill their destinies.

There are three possible ties. In the traditional game, these are simply ignored. In the Shadow Game, these are celebrated as follows:

Both players throw	Both players act out
Paperweight	Shadow boxing
Snippers	Running with scissors
Paper Doll	The scorekeeper becomes a storyteller when two Paper Dolls grace the wall and interact as a shadow-puppetshow ensues