Episode 331: Stephanie Lesser – 101 Pinball Puzzles author
Special guest host Steven Bowden (American Pinball, FunWithBonus.com) talks with Stephanie about her amazing new book. It's filled with all kinds of pinball games, call-outs, personalities and more....
Highlights
- 101 Pinball Puzzles contains puzzles ranging from Monday/Tuesday difficulty (fairly easy) to more challenging cryptograms based on pinball machine titles and call-out phrases
- The book features approximately a couple of hundred people and locations between players, designers, artists, and programmers featured in word searches and themed puzzles
- Lesser's crosswords have been published in the New York Times, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal
- Newspaper crossword puzzles increase in difficulty from Monday (easiest) through Friday, with Sunday typically being the largest and most difficult puzzle
- Lesser regularly competes in pinball tournaments in Florida, including at the Pinball Asylum, Free Play, Delray Silver Ball Museum, and Pinball Dudes in Jupiter
Notable quotes
“It just takes you away from everything and into the game mode. And also the community, the people in pinball, super, super good people.”
“The Asylum is just one of my favorite places to play. The people are fabulous. The games are wonderful. There are so many different games from different eras. And everything's spread out. I actually get lost when I play.”
“I put a lot of names in for the word searches... I did a lot of titles because they're fun. And I also did a lot of people because it's good to know who's who in pinball... I incorporated those into the word searches, too. So you can kind of learn a little bit about pinball while you're doing the puzzles.”
“You do not have to be a pinball wizard to get through this book. In fact... you don't need to know any pinball to do about half of the activities in the book.”
“I used long pinball machine titles and call-out phrases for my cryptogram. So I did provide you with the first letter. I already decoded the first and last letter of each cryptogram, and then I also have two additional sets of hints.”
Entities
- American Pinball· company
- LA Times· company
- New York Times· company
- Wall Street Journal· company
- Free Play Florida· event
- IFPA 17 Championships· event
- Pinball Profile· media
- Delray Silver Ball Museum· organization
- Pinball Asylum· organization
- Pinball Dudes· organization
- Jeff Teolis· person
- Norma Jennings· person
- Stephanie Lesser· person
- Stephen Bowden· person
- 101 Pinball Puzzles· product
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