Smack-N-Moles

Life can truly feel like a game of Whack-A-Mole at times, tamping down one problem only to have another pop up elsewhere, again and again and again. Then again, and depending on your perspective, this potentially hopeless situation can also be a great excuse to repeatedly smash things with a giant mallet. Whoopee! That’s exactly the sort of sentiment that disturbed dentist Dr. Stephen Chin (who is actually disarming and charming) would love to give people as a gift should the opportunity arise. So begins the story of an unusually epic exchange gift created by Robert Yarger and presented by Dr. Chin at the 2023 International Puzzle Party. Well, technically the story begins in 1975, when the Japanese amusement ride company TOGO released Mogura Taij (Mole Buster), a franticly fun mole smashing game invented by Kazuo Yamada. It made its way to the American midway, where Aaron Fechter modified it with air compression cylinders and dubbed it “Whack-A-Mole”. The rest, as they say, is this story.

Thanks to Robert Yarger, one of the best story tellers I know, I humbly relinquish my duties this week. “The Smack–N-Moles were not as complex as my usual puzzles, but not bad for exchange puzzles. Their creation came about when Stephen Chin asked me to make his exchanges for him, something I swore I would never do again, but he was adamant that he was fully retired from making his own puzzles, and I wanted him to be able to participate in the exchange. Ironically, when I was half way done with them, he changed his mind and came out with his own new design – the tooth fairy. Ok Master Chin, you win this one, but I call shenanigans. :)

Of course, I know what kind of puzzles Chin likes to hand out, so I was looking for designs that were fun, whimsical, a little diabolical, and yet simple enough to produce for an exchange. The initial concept was for a “Can of Worms” puzzlebox, with flexible plastic worms boring their way out of the can. As each one was shoved back into a different hole, it would make another come out elsewhere. The puzzle was to get all worms back in flush with the can, and then it would open. A classic Chin style puzzle.

As an option to provide him a choice, I also offered an arcade whack a mole theme as a general concept, but really had not considered how it might work. He promptly requested a working prototype. So, I started with just a theme, of considering ways to easily produce a mini working model of the arcade game, and figured there must be some way to turn whatever that was into a puzzle somehow. Paint into a corner approach.

I wanted one mole to pop out when another was pounded, and considered various concepts on internal lever systems. All were crude, taking up way too much internal space with complex mechanics. Chin wanted to include a small candy or toy in each puzzle as a prize, and this would jam up mechanics. And so evolved the thought of using the toy as the lever. The original concept was to have a panel's fulcrum be a marble prize that rolled around in a frame in the base. I had Chin searching online for the particular marbles he liked, and checked the expense of having specialty ones produced for the project.

The marble eventually evolved into a static post, the post evolved into a shaft, and that shaft evolved into. . . . whatever you want to call that strange mechanical thing one now finds inside when they finally figure out how to get it open. The contraption designed as a lever for the game to work, promptly also became the puzzle. See how I don’t design puzzles as much as they evolve on their own out of necessity.

Anyway, the proto that Chin had requested had enough charm and unexpected steps to become the formal Stickman # 37, and its production jumped from 100 exchange copies to a run of 200, - with a goal of perhaps this time finally being able to produce a puzzle for most everyone on my list.

My wife thought the little moles were way too cute to pound with a mallet. I told her that they enjoyed being smacked around. Why else would they stick their heads up? In my insanity of making so many little moles, I began naming ones that looked unique. There was one named “lil Buddah”, who was a holy moly. There was “James Bond mole” who was an undercover mole. There was “skin tag” who was a suspicious mole, with shifty eyes. There was Adam, the mole of atomic weight. Saucy, the mole of marinades.

For some reason, my wife was also fascinated by the tiny mallets, and wanted a spare one for her Barbie doll collection. Like what is Barbie going to do with a mallet? She said that Walking Dead Barbie has to kill zombies with something. But as it turned out, I ended up with one more box than I did mallets, so I guess Barbie has to find something else to kill zombies with.

200 puzzles was a daunting task, and I quickly went through an entire palate of walnut, that I had originally calculated as being far more than enough. I searched my shop for scrap woods from previous projects just to finish the run, and I ended up with a few alternate versions. There was a mad dash to finish up and ship out the ones that Chin required for his IPP exchange. I have an ongoing vendetta with the customs departments of most countries, and vice versa. They hate me. I shipped these off 5 weeks early and paid extra for fastest shipping available, with the expectations of shenanigans. Indeed, they made me jump through irrational hoops, and exchange puzzles barely arrived the day before the exchange. At least they got there, and did not get smashed open with a hammer. That would be irony, and such has happened with customs before.”

Smack-N-Moles is an adorable puzzle box, just right in both size and complexity. There’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye, and solving the puzzle will require a bit of thinking “outside the box”. Besides being a nicely satisfying puzzle, it’s also a ton of fun! It really works like the arcade game! Rob has created a fantastic little puzzle that has quickly joined the favorites list.

“Will I ever make another IPP exchange puzzle run? Ten years ago, I swore that I never would do it again; yet I made these. Their sheer volume pulled me outside of my comfort zone, and made me question my sanity at times. But looking back, the project was actually fun, even with the problems, and I have no regrets. The project was foretold.

And on the fifth day, God said a few things, but one of them was “let there be little moles to rummage around under the earth, and yea let there also be mallets crafted of gopher wood, (because that is just freaking funny), by which to smack them with when they poke their little heads up, because all moles enjoy a good whacking. And it was so. In the end this puzzle was fulfillment of prophecy.”

Daq a Mole daiquiri mole cocktail — Daq a Mole

Creating a new cocktail just because the name would be funny has got to be the dumbest idea ever. So obviously, people do it all the time. I’m a little teensy bit guilty of that conceit myself, from time to time. Listen, I just can’t resist a good pun (or a good cocktail). I’m not saying that all puns are good. Like the time this pun once went berserk, walked into a carnival with a mallet and whacked all ten moles. The news headline the next day read, Carnival closes mid way, Pun in, ten dead.

So here’s my amusingly tasty whack at a daiquiri variation. The daiquiri is an elegantly simply combination of rum, lime juice and sugar syrup, and is one of the best ways to enjoy a good rum, when made with the proper proportions. It’s a true classic. A little tweak here or there to the template, or the subtle addition of an extra flavor, can make a new drink, at once familiar, yet fresh and interesting. Mole is a traditional Mexican sauce that is rich in flavor from chilis, nuts, fruits, and spices. It classically includes dark chocolate as well. Cocktail bitters are the seasoning used in many cocktails to introduce subtle undertones and tie all the flavors together. Traditional bitters like baking spice heavy Angostura and creole seasoned Peychaud’s have been joined by just about every flavored bitter conceivable over the last two decades. One popular mainstay has been the chocolate bitter, most popular as a chocolate “mole” bitter and often referred to as Xocolatl, the Aztec word which predated chocolate. Based purely on a pun, I added a healthy dose of mole bitters to a daiquiri, and discovered a great new spin on the classic. Holy mole - Olé!

Daq a Mole

2 oz white rum

1 oz fresh lime

½ oz simple syrup

8 dashes Xocolatl Mole bitters

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass. Lime twist or Whack a Mole garnish, optional.

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N.B. – Many thanks to Robert Yarger for telling this tale, this offering belongs to him.

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