My name is Mason Porter. I am a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. Previously I was Professor of Nonlinear and Complex Systems in the Mathematical Institute at University of Oxford. I was also a Tutorial Fellow of Somerville College.
I do get a little pissy at a lot of the winners. To me, it's all about the art of compact, concentrated badness, NOT the art of constructing a ridiculously long run-on sentence. Yes, you can fit more badness in if you construct a long string of words that is *technically* a sentence, but it's far less artful, imho.
That being said, the winner in the Detective category was my fav.
I agree that the best ones are typically not brute-force attempts. I think you have mentioned this before, but the mini-Lyttons basically prevent that route and can often be better as a result.
Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteI do get a little pissy at a lot of the winners. To me, it's all about the art of compact, concentrated badness, NOT the art of constructing a ridiculously long run-on sentence. Yes, you can fit more badness in if you construct a long string of words that is *technically* a sentence, but it's far less artful, imho.
That being said, the winner in the Detective category was my fav.
I agree that the best ones are typically not brute-force attempts. I think you have mentioned this before, but the mini-Lyttons basically prevent that route and can often be better as a result.
ReplyDelete