Monday 4 December 2023
Sunday 3 December 2023
Saturday 2 December 2023
Somewhere Between Two and Twenty Four Things, Somewhere Between One and Twenty Three of Which are Elephants.
Posted by John Finnemore at 11:14 pm 2 comments
Friday 1 December 2023
24 Things, Many of Which Are Still Likely To Be Elephants or Bears, Especially Elephants; But Also It’s Vanishingly Unlikely There’ll Actually Be 24 of Them, or Even Close - Thing One. And Possibly Only.
Posted by John Finnemore at 9:12 pm 4 comments
Monday 4 September 2023
Thursday 31 August 2023
Brigham Young is sure Anthony Trollope is a miner.
The Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, on a tour of the United States, passed through Utah, and decided to drop in on Brigham Young. It did not go well. From Trollope's autobiography:
"I did not achieve great intimacy with the great polygamist of Salt Lake City. [...] He received me in his doorway, not asking me to enter, and inquired whether I was not a miner. When I told him that I was not a miner, he asked me whether I earned my bread. I told him I did. "I guess you're a miner," said he. I again assured him I was not. "Then how do you earn your bread?" I told him I did so by writing books. "I'm sure you're a miner," said he. Then he turned upon his heel, went back into the house, and closed the door."
Alt text: Anthony Trollope. Looking, as usual, exactly like a miner. |
Posted by John Finnemore at 3:09 pm 5 comments
Saturday 26 August 2023
Four expressions I didn't know until today came from rhyming slang
- Scarper; British slang for 'run away'. From Scapa Flow - Go.
- Grass; as in informant. From Grasshopper - copper (and from there to copper's nark)
- Dukes; slang for fists, as in 'duking it out'. From Duke of York - Fork. ('Forks' being now-forgotten slang for hands.)
- Donkey's years; a long time. From Donkey's Ears, rhyming slang for Years... but then the Y crept back in.
Posted by John Finnemore at 2:13 pm 11 comments
Monday 13 February 2023
"Untitled Mystery", the untitled mystery.
I briefly interrupt this parade of elephants and bears (not usually a wise thing to do) to bring you news of a new project of mine.
It's a murder mystery. But really, it's a set of very difficult, interconnected puzzles. But really... it's a box of one hundred picture postcards. I mean, if that's all you need to hear, by all means go straight here to buy it. But for a little more explanation, read on.
In 2020, I spent some of my lockdown trying to solve the newly republished murder mystery / puzzle Cain's Jawbone, written by the famous cryptic crossword setter Torquemada in 1934. The puzzle consisted of a box of one hundred pages of a novel, in a random order. The solver had to work out the correct order of the pages, and then interpret the strange and allusive narrative so as to deduce the killers and victims in the six murders in the story. It turned out to be ridiculously difficult, as it was meant to be; but if the spring of 2020 was good for anything, it was for spending far too long on almost impossible puzzles. Eventually, I submitted a solution, which to my enormous surprise turned out not only to be right, but also the only correct one submitted. I won a thousand pounds, bought a piano, and thought that was that.
But then, two things happened. The first was, thanks in part to TikTok, Cain's Jawbone took off in a surprisingly big way. And the second was, I found I missed it. I really wanted to try solving another puzzle in that style. But Torquemada never wrote another one, and nor did anyone else. So it seemed the only thing to do was to try to create one myself.
So this year Unbound, the publishers of Cain's Jawbone, are publishing a new mystery puzzle box by me, the title of which is still secret for now. This time, solvers will receive a box of one hundred picture postcards. As with Cain's Jawbone, they will need to arrange the text sides in the correct order, and understand the story told there, in order to identify the killer and victim in a series of ten murders; as well as a certain crucial address. But in order to do this, they will also need to solve the various puzzles presented by the picture sides.
The picture side puzzles allow me to do two things: firstly, compensate for the arrival of the internet since 1934. You may now be able to google an obscure Walt Whitman quotation, but you can't google 'How on earth is this picture of a tree a puzzle?' Secondly, if Cain's Jawbone had a flaw (which I don't admit) it's that it's a little off-putting and seemingly impenetrable until you make a certain breakthrough. I think a lot of people had a brief look through the cards, thought 'Well, that's impossible' and gave up. I certainly did, before lockdown came along and invited me to have another go. So the picture puzzles - which are also, to be clear, ridiculously difficult - give the solver something they can immediately get their teeth into, while they're grappling with the madness on the other side.
Lastly, they're there because they have to be. There is, within the story, a reason why these cards exist, why they have puzzles embedded in them... and why one of the murderers now keeps them safely locked in a drawer. I hope you enjoy trying to work out what it is.
For more information, to pre-order a copy, and to gaze in wonder at some exhilaratingly expensive pencils... step this way.
Oh, and the postcards shown here are not solvable with the information given, so don't torture yourself. Yet.
Posted by John Finnemore at 4:32 pm 37 comments
Tuesday 31 January 2023
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 20
ALT TEXT: Daddy Bear and Baby Bear in bath. Baby Bear did big jump, and splashing, splashing. Such, at least, was the commission.
Posted by John Finnemore at 11:58 pm 11 comments
Sunday 1 January 2023
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 19 (Surprise!)
Posted by John Finnemore at 7:00 pm 12 comments
Wednesday 21 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 18
ALT TEXT: A cardboard box, on which is drawn a family of hippos gazing in delight at a shower of cupcakes falling towards them like manna. This reflects my patron's short-lived hippo phase. However, elephants are just about visible on two other flaps of the box, so yes it does count, thank you.
Posted by John Finnemore at 11:48 pm 20 comments
Monday 19 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 17
First, an apology. It has been brought to my attention that I have been irritatingly coy about the identity of my patron for this series of pieces, and the precise nature of my relationship with him. This is of course information you have every right to know, for reasons too obvious to explain; and which you could not possibly in a million years have guessed. No-one’s that clever-clever.
So let me now be perfectly straightforward with you: my patron is His Serene Grace Archduke Gustavus Von und zu Schellenhuber, Prince-Elector of Westphalia. I recently had the honour to be appointed his Court Artist (Ursine and Elephantine works only).
Here is the latest piece I have completed for His Grace. I believe he intends it as a fresco for his refectory.
Posted by John Finnemore at 11:56 pm 13 comments
Labels: Elephants, The Unbelievable Truth
Saturday 17 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 16
Posted by John Finnemore at 5:52 pm 11 comments
Friday 16 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 15
ALT TEXT: The head of a bear, figured in every artist's medium of choice: yellow Playdoh. And looking considerably more apprehensive than the artist intended, although I suppose that makes a change from all the inane grinning.
The 'head only' approach is by far my patron's least favourite. He loathes it, and any such submission is immediately met with outraged cries of 'Knees! Knees!' However, as I believe Caravaggio used to say to Cardinal Del Monte, "There's only so much Playdoh in the tub."
Posted by John Finnemore at 6:14 pm 5 comments
Thursday 15 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 14
Posted by John Finnemore at 10:06 pm 5 comments
Wednesday 14 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 13
Posted by John Finnemore at 9:15 pm 10 comments
Monday 12 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 12
Posted by John Finnemore at 5:16 pm 13 comments
Sunday 11 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 11
Posted by John Finnemore at 11:34 pm 15 comments
Saturday 10 December 2022
Friday 9 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 9
ALT TEXT: An elephant - if it is an elephant (and it is an elephant) - marching dynamically from right to left. Images of elephants in motion are particularly prized by my patron, and successful examples of the genre are met with an approving 'hup two three two!': a quotation (with minor numerical modification) from The Jungle Book.
Posted by John Finnemore at 2:57 pm 10 comments
Thursday 8 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 8
Alt Text update from yesterday- it seems alt text is a nightmare, and can only be accessed by certain people, on certain makes of phone, and only then by answering three riddles set by a manticore. So I’ve come up with a cunning alternative.
ALT TEXT: a cartoonish sketch of the head of a brown bear. He or she is smiling at us pleasantly, but there’s something a little off about their eyes. I feel you should not entirely trust this bear.
Posted by John Finnemore at 11:46 pm 7 comments
Labels: Drawings
Wednesday 7 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 7
Posted by John Finnemore at 4:56 pm 16 comments
Tuesday 6 December 2022
24 Elephants or Bears - Elephant or Bear 6
Posted by John Finnemore at 6:13 pm 5 comments
Monday 5 December 2022
Sunday 4 December 2022
Saturday 3 December 2022
Friday 2 December 2022
Thursday 1 December 2022
24 Elephants and Bears - Elephant or Bear 1
This year- for reasons I forget- I have been mostly drawing elephants and bears. Here come some now.
Posted by John Finnemore at 8:49 pm 11 comments
Labels: Drawings, Elephants, Unfierce Creatures
Sunday 31 July 2022
Herbert Beerbohm makes an adjustment
The most perfect caricature is that which, on a small surface, with the simplest means, most accurately exaggerates, to the highest point, the peculiarities of a human being, at his most characteristic moment, in the most beautiful manner.
Saturday 2 July 2022
J.B. Priestley bubbles with delight.
Here is J.B. Priestley: man of letters; author of 'An Inspector Calls', 'Dangerous Corner' and many other such examinations of the nature of morality and time.
Posted by John Finnemore at 1:50 pm 9 comments
Labels: More Fun Than You'd Think