Bank Account

Burr Bank

Located a few miles northeast of Hollywood and known as the “media capital of the world”, the Los Angeles adjacent city of Burbank, California, is occasionally confused with a puzzle. While I’m sure that Hollywood has plenty of its own puzzles to solve, I’m referring to the one created by Dr. Andrew Crowell, and aerospace engineer and interlocking puzzle enthusiast who has perfected a certain type of hybrid conundrum involving interlocking notched sticks (burr puzzles) combined with other categories of mechanical puzzles. It’s not an easy thing to do well. He introduced the concept with his award winningly clever robot, Burr Bot, who had ill-advisedly ingested a gold coin which was challenging to retrieve. Calling Burr Bot a hybrid burr puzzle hardly begins to explain it. Burr Bank, the follow-up sequential discovery, multistage trapped burr puzzle hybrid made to look like a bank, is also hard to explain, and equally hard to put down.

Burr Bank by Andrew Crowell

From Andrew [with edits to preserve spoiling any of the solution]: “On Burr Bank, it is obviously a successor to Burr Bot.  My initial goal was to make a puzzle with a little more burr puzzle requirement than Burr Bot had.  I had a few of the, shall I call them 'veteran puzzlers' comment that the burr portion of Burr Bot was very easy.  At the same time I had a number of people comment that they thought the burr portion was just on the edge of what they could do and thought maybe it was even a little too difficult... Just shows the wide variation in some puzzlers' likes and dislikes.  Anyway, I went through a process of trying to find a burr puzzle which would require more moves, and I found a number of options, but I was able to find one specific design that would require [a certain key move]. So, I knew from that point, that was the puzzle I was going to base the whole design around.

taking stock of this one

In trying to avoid spoilers, I spent a lot of time trying to design the shall I call it second major burr portion of the puzzle, without ruining the first portion.  That took a long time, but I finally came up with an idea for how the second burr phase of the puzzle could work.  But in order to make it work I had to make the [sections of the puzzle to behave how I envisioned].  I finally got all of the 'burr' portion figured out, and then spent a lot of time working on the mechanics of the puzzle.  The most difficult portion of an SD puzzle for me is in trying to ensure that the puzzle is solved the way that I intend.  Burr Bot had a mild short cut several people found, but as far as anyone told me, it did not ruin the solve for them.  I knew with the way Burr Bank is meant to be solved, that any shortcuts would really destroy what I intended.  So I spent most of my time ensuring the second burr phase of the puzzle could not be avoided.

conflict of interest?

Andrew has done a phenomenal job on Burr Bank, improving on any concerns he had with Burr Bank and creating an even more multilayered, complex, surprising and fun puzzle. Once again he blurs the lines between puzzle categories and genres, and proves that innovation happens at the intersections. I would not be surprised if Burr Bank becomes an award winning puzzle as well. I would certainly give it a gold star – or rather, coin: “hopefully people actually find the gold piece in this puzzle... A number of people missed the gold piece in Burr Bot by stopping early.  The 'Red Herring' was apparently too literal to understand :-)” Here’s some free advice – a great place to invest your cold hard cash is in a brrr bank.

Millionaire by Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric

Let’s toast this banker’s delight with a richly rewarding classic, the Millionaire. The cocktail dates back to the roaring twenties when in the aftermath of the Great War, Wall Street saw a huge surge in millionaires. This period was also, ironically, during the prohibition of alcohol in the United States, but no matter, there were plenty of talented bartenders across the pond mixing up newly innovative drinks for the times. The name was so appealing that no less than five distinct recipes from this era exist. Two are even offered side by side in Harry Craddock’s landmark Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930. Versions use either rum and sloe gin or rye whiskey for the base spirit, and may include apricot brandy, orange liqueur, raspberry or pomegranate syrup and even absinthe. It seems there is always more than one way to strike it rich.

put your money where your mouth is

One of the more satisfying recipes, which has been given a modern upgrade with more balanced proportions, comes from the team at New York’s Employee’s Only. In this variation bourbon (or rye whiskey) plays the starring role (an appropriate spirit for bankers these days). Accents are provided by the fittingly rich orange brandy liqueur Grand Marnier and a (preferably) homemade grenadine, which can’t be beat for lush deep flavor compared to store bought and is quite simple to prepare. A dash of anise flavor from pastis (or absinthe) layers complexity, a little lemon adds acidity and balance, and finally an egg white provides texture. Is it decadent? Naturally - it’s a Millionaire. Take that to the bank. Cheers!

you can bank on this pair

Millionaire by Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric

2 oz bourbon

¾ oz Grand Marnier

¼ oz pastis

½ oz grenadine

½ oz lemon

1 egg white

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