Oskar. Connectivity.

My friend Oskar van Deventer is one of the modern world's greatest puzzle designers. On the one hand, he pretty much just designs mazes. But these are mazes only in the generic sense that a maze requires you to move from one state to another.

While catching up with Mathpuzzle, I was delighted to see that an Oskar puzzle is now a 30x30x45cm public sculpture. You'll have to just go to the site and scroll down to "Material Added September 11, 2005." Years on the web and Ed doesn't understand permalinks.

Terms of Venery

Every word enthusiast eventually amuses himself or herself with "terms of venery," better known as collective nouns. These are the words you use to describe a group of things. You know, a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows, or, most famously An Exaltation of Larks. "Terms of venery" comes from the days when proper breeding required a gentleman hunter to know the proper names for the groups of animals he might find on a foray. Venus, who enjoyed the chase, lends her name to the root. "Venereal terms," though correct, hasn't persisted for some reason.

A recent Word-A-Day email included suggestions for new terms. My favorite was "a blather of bloggers." Melissa's, "a clique of photographers." I once came up with "a network of nerds." When my ex-girlfriend and I went to the symphony, we played the game for little black dresses, the fail-safe outfit for women lacking something to wear to an event. She voted for "a ubiquity of LBDs," while I opted for "a revelation." Different perspectives, I guess.