Twins Box

The puzzle stork has made a new delivery, flying from the Netherlands, via Helsinki, passing through China and even making a fateful stop in Japan. The journey began long ago, and has been gestating for twenty years, until now. And, surprise! It’s not just one big shiny aluminum box – it’s double sized! It’s Twins!

Dutch puzzle designer and international man of mystery Wil Strijbos is well regarded for the many impressive and legendary puzzle creations he has invented and produced in high quality anodized metal, such as the Lotus, the Butterfly Lock, the First Box and one of my favorites, Pachinko. He also happens to have an incredible life story to tell, which he began telling years ago using his natural medium. The Angel Box relates the story of a chance encounter with a beautiful stranger, with a twist fit for a novel or romantic comedy. Anyone who has Wil’s Angel Box will likely have heard the tale, recounted by Wil.

“It all started in August 2005 at the IPP in Helsinki when Janine, a puzzle friend who'd come with me, told me about an old Nokia building that was being used as a complex for artists' studios, and a gallery for exhibitions. Walking around the building I discovered a door with a digital lock. Cracking the code wasn't really an option, so I waited for someone to go inside and sneaked in behind them, to gain access. Inside I found an elevator and took it up. I wandered around the many rooms, some of which were being used as offices, others filled with paintings and drawings, and some of which were empty. Some doors were locked and others, not … and mysteriously some doors could only be opened from one side, so I had to take care not to lock myself in. I saw it as a big three-dimensional labyrinth and enjoyed exploring from room to room.” This large industrial maze-like office complex turned studio gallery planted the seeds of what would become the Angel Box, but there were other seeds that would be planted, too!

“At one point I found myself trapped and couldn't open any of the doors, but then someone opened a door I was trying to open from the in-side, or was it the outside? An Angel with black hair appeared in front of me and said "No pictures please!" Unfortunately, she was too late as I was filming a movie! My Angel and I became friends. She gave me her heart, and this lovely moment was later used as inspiration in the creation of my Angel Box.” The story is wonderful, and captures the origins of an idea, which was inspired by passionate emotions and nostalgia. But Wil leaves out another part of the story, meant to be private, but finally shared, which grew into another wonderful idea continuing the story that the Angel began. Wil relates how he discovered the existence of the twins, whose story began that fateful day in the Nokia building.

“I received a letter from Finland out of the blue. I was quite surprised when I received it as it was signed “Your Angel". It had been quite a long time since we'd corresponded, so I was really curious to see what my Angel had to tell me. The first few sentences weren't particularly remarkable... but then halfway through my Angel wrote something I really couldn't believe: she wrote about her 2 children, Twins - two girls - born in April 2006, about nine months after we met in the Nokia Building. Actually, she was referring to them as our Twins. As the Twins would soon be 10 years old, she'd decided that the time had come to tell them the story of the Nokia building.

Now, as far as I remember, the story was that I met my Angel in the Nokia building. We talked for ages about this and that and she offered me something to drink. I remember very clearly getting a glass of jus d‘orange, although it had a very strange taste. Soon after the glass was empty, I felt a bit dizzy, so my Angel suggested I lie down on a stretcher. Almost immediately I fell into a very deep sleep and in my dream-state I saw an Angel above me. Sometime later when I awoke, I found the strangest thing: I was lying there with my trousers around my knees. I had no idea what had happened, so I did the obvious thing: I pulled up my trousers!

I replied to her letter asking my Angel how I could possibly be the Twins' father? When she subsequently told me the whole story (use your imagination!) I still couldn't believe what had happened... but then my Angel wrote that the two girls were wonderfully kind, polite and clever - clearly “they MUST be my daughters”. As you know, I made the Angel Box as a tribute to my Angel, so now I have started to create “The Twins Box” as a tribute to our Twins.” Wil began working on what became the Twins Box at that moment, about ten years ago now. He includes a dreamlike addition to the story, which occurred to him more recently and lends a final touch of whimsy, mystery, playfulness, and fantasy to the puzzle backstory.k

“The Twins were, and still are, unavailable to me. But when I was in Tokyo, in the Ikebukuro district, at the Tokyo Hands shop, two girls approached me, saying, "Hello, Dad." I asked, "How am I your father?" They said their mother had a photo of me that they weren't supposed to see, and so it was me. I asked, "How did you end up here?" “Our mother didn't want you to meet us if you returned to Finland. And now we're locked up here in this department of Tokyo Hands.” After hearing this, I had to revise my idea of the Twins Box so I could get help from my puzzle friends to permanently free the Twins. By the way, the Twins have typical Finnish names: N’okia and Aiko’n.”

Wil has immortalized his twin daughters in this puzzle, where they are metaphorically locked away inside the former Tokyo Hands store in Ikebukuro (now closed). It’s up to us to free them, and the long awaited adventure does not disappoint. Twins Box is one seriously heavy block of metal. While it’s no Monolith, it will definitely give you a strenuous workout as you follow Wil’s instructions to gently turn it, exploring and investigating, while considering the many options, using no force at all. The box has a highly idiosyncratic design detail that friends of Wil should not be surprised about, a “Hers” keylock with a suggestive key placement that he spent a long time sourcing. Wil says she symbolizes his “Angel”, who inspired both puzzles.

There’s also an unusual aspect to this puzzle, for a Strijbos puzzle, which is that Wil takes your hand, like a proud father wanting to introduce you to his beautiful progeny, and guides you along the journey. There are many hints and much guidance as to what to do, and what is next. Just pay attention, and trust the guide. Even so, I had a few moments of doubt, and needed encouragement, which was expertly provided to me by Louis, whom many in the community know is one of the world’s greatest puzzle solvers. At one point, I managed to skip a step, discovering a new elegant way to solve a certain problem. As fate would have it, Wil and friends happened to be gathered at MPPXXXXCIYKYK across the pond, and confirmed my new idea in real time, which was fun, but of course, I couldn’t really skip the skipped step if I had any hope of solving the whole puzzle, which was in the end another very helpful piece of advice I received.

Wil says there are “three new tricks in this box. So, you can not work with all the experience you have loaded in your mind through the years - “Think out of the Box please””. Indeed, you cannot rely on past experience to try old tricks here. Leave it to little children to teach old dogs new tricks. There are some very unusual steps and unexpected tools to discover and deduce that will have you marvelling at how Wil must make his way through the world, seeing everyday object and imagining how he will turn them into a puzzling mechanism. The results are delightful. One can only hope that Wil’s fertile mind is not yet finished giving birth!

Too Soon cocktail — too soon? by Sam Ross

A toast to the twins is clearly in order. It would certainly have been appropriate to raise two glasses, of course, either with two different cocktails, or identical ones! But one toast for both twins will capture the spirit nicely here and will keep things tidy – twins are a handful enough as it is, there’s no room for overindulging! In my research for an appropriate drink I came across the “Twin Six”, a vintage cocktail found in the pages of Recipes for Mixed Drinks, 1916. The cocktail book, by Hugo Ensslin, holds the claim to fame for being the last major compendium of current cocktails published just before the American Prohibition started. As such, the book and its little known author became quite famous in later decades, for it contains a record of many otherwise lost classics.

The original Twin cocktail, likely named after the Packard Twin Six automobile line of that era, is interesting for using slices of orange which are shaken with the liquid in the tin. I discovered the drink on Boston bartender Fred Yarm’s blog, which then led me to a more modern drink he recommended which also uses the old idea of orange slices. The new drink, by legendary bartender Sam Ross (creator of the modern classic Penicillin) is called “too soon?”, which seemed amusing for this toast, since the Twin being toasted here took twenty years to be produced. Ross combines gin, lemon and sugar like a gin sour, but adds Cynar, a delicious dark amaro form Italy. The orange wedges also add unexpected brightness to this delicious cocktail. Here’s to unexpected surprises, and the dreams they inspire. Cheers!

Twins Box puzzle by Wil Strijbos and Too Soon cocktail — twice the fun

too soon? By Sam Ross

1 oz gin (Beefeater)

1 oz Cynar

¾ oz lemon

½ oz simple syrup

2 orange wedges

Combine ingredients with ice, shake hard and strain into a favorite glass. No official garnish.

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