:: Eric Shamblen’s Puzzle Blog ::

Do you know where some fun quizzes can be found online?   If so, the Fun Quizzes Club wants to know about them!

Blogger Lisa is building what she hopes will be “a good collection of links to all kind of fun quizzes and puzzles on the web.” What links she has already can be found in the Blog section of the site. She’s off to a good start, having already linked to this blog as well as to a fun new Memory Quiz I made for the Kauai Humane Society.

So if you have or know of a great quiz site, Lisa would love to hear from you!

So I got this email the other day:

Hi. I got this puzzle from a company called Skor-Mor Corp. back in 1971. The idea is to take the string/ring/block assembly off of the wire loop. It took me about 45 min. of fiddling to solve it and then I was able to demonstrate the solution — even behind my back! I put the puzzle away for about 8 years, forgot the solution, and it’s bedeviled me ever since. I’ve tried without success to locate either a picture of the same puzzle or a solution. Skor-Mor Corp. no longer exists. Here’s hoping you might know something. — Markham

A mystery! The game was afoot!

First I Googled “skor-mor.” The first result was Skor-Mor Online. This was too easy… oh. “Skor-Mor is one of the nation’s largest bowling equipment suppliers…” It WAS too easy. Scanning the next few results showed more bowling references mixed in with some puzzle references. Better narrow the pool.

Next, Googling “skor-mor puzzle.” Some interesting links, including one back to my own blog. Well, if I can’t find the information on my own, perhaps Mike Reilly still has some connections. In any case, there are 181 results, which is still more than I want to search through.

What else do I know about this mysterious puzzle, other than the manufacturer? The goal is to remove a ring assembly from a wooden block… Googling “skor-mor puzzle rings.”

Aha. First result is Rob’s Puzzle Page - Other. The description is: This puzzle is called Right On and was produced by Skor Mor. …. This “Magic Ring” trick consists of a fairly long loop of chain and a metal ring. … Definitely worth further investigation.

The site turns out to be a long, fascinating history of various sorts of puzzles throughout modern history. Skor-Mor is mentioned 4 times as a puzzle and game manufacturer, but not the particular type of puzzle I’m looking for. A brief look at the menu on the top of the page shows links to other categories of puzzles, but again, nothing that describes this particular type. Back to the search results.

A few more false starts on page one, and then on the second page I start seeing results for “SKOR-MOR’S STRINGS’N'RINGS WOOD” on E-bay and similar sites. Looks promising, but apparently these are old listings — the product is no longer actually listed when I go to the site.

Let’s try “skor-mor strings rings.” Second result is Strings N Rings Description: “This nicely crafted set was produced by Skor-Mor (part of their “Thinker” series). Each consists of strings and rings (of course). … “ Looks good. Clicking on the link, I see 4 pictures, including this one:

Ring-A-Ling Puzzle
Remove the center ring (and of course place it back).
The description sounds wrong, but this looks pretty much like Markham’s puzzle, ignoring the large wooden block apparently used for display purposes. Googling “skor-mor ring-a-ling.” Only two results: the page I was just on, and Rob’s Puzzle Page again, only this result says Rob’s Puzzle Page - Tanglements. Description: I got a partially filled wholesale box of old Skor-Mor Thinker Series puzzles. … 1x F18 Ring-A-Ling (equal to Left Brain), 1x (no label, … Clicking on the link, I see that Rob apparently does not believe in consistent internal navigation. This page has a totally different menu from the first page I saw, which did not link to this page. But searching the page itself for “ring-a-ling” I find this:


It’s quite obviously Markham’s puzzle, but my goal is to find not just the name of the puzzle or a picture of it, but the solution, if I can. And Rob’s Puzzle Page doesn’t have the solution. Moving on…But wait a minute. Something looks wrong. I look back at Markham’s original picture, and it hits me. There is a clear difference between the picture on Rob’s Puzzle Page and the one Markham sent me, one that was not so obvious in that first result I found. Markham’s puzzle only has two rings, but Rob’s has three. And what was the description on that first result I found? “Remove the center ring (and of course place it back).”

There is the answer: Twenty-odd years ago, Markham successfully removed the center ring, but did not put it back! Years later, when he came across the puzzle again, he had forgotten that there ever was another ring, but remembered that the goal of the puzzle was to remove something from something else. So he made up an explanation. “The idea is to take the string/ring/block assembly off of the wire loop” — which is impossible. No wonder he couldn’t solve it!

The only thing left to do was to tell Markham my findings, but my emails to him kept getting blocked as spam. Well, maybe he’ll read my blog…

Not so much, according to a current non-scientific poll by About.com.  On Dave Fisher’s puzzle blog, he asks the simple question:  have you ever bought puzzles online?   As of this writing, only 31% of respondents said yes.  A whopping 68% said no.  Given that these results were obtained from a self-selected pool of people who are interested in puzzles or they wouldn’t be on the page to begin with, I find these highly depressing numbers.

But not shocking. As PuzzleMonster.com enters its fifth year of existence, I can count the number of puzzle-related items I’ve sold through the site on two hands. A few copies of the e-book of original logic puzzles Spot the Alien here, a copy or two of Puzzle Monster Presents: Chained Melodies there. Original Puzzle Monster t-shirts? Zero.

So what’s up, people? You clearly like puzzles; puzzle sites like AFunZone.com generate over 37,000 page views every day. You might even be willing to pay for them; dozens of puzzle-oriented magazines can be found at any supermarket or drugstore. But buy puzzles online? Na ga da, as Dany Carvey used to say.

Anyone have an explanation? I’d love to hear it!