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  "path": "/columnists/2026/05/28/rube-goldberg-puzzle-book-tik-tok-instagram-social-media",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-28T16:41:59.623Z",
  "site": "https://chicago.suntimes.com",
  "textContent": "<p>If you asked me to list the three greatest cartoonists from a century ago, the first two would be easy: No. 1, George Herriman, whose \"Krazy Kat\" created a surreal world around the love triangle of the titular, gender-fluid feline, her — or, sometimes, his — unrequited love for the brick-throwing Ignatz Mouse, both kept in line by Krazy's secret admirer, Offissa Pupp, all capering across a stark Arizona scrubland conjured up by Herriman's madly creative pen.</p><p>Then Windsor McKay, whose \"Little Nemo in Slumberland\" plunged readers into Art Nouveau dreamscape where a little boy peers over pillows while his bed, its legs impossible long, strides down Fifth Avenue.</p><p>As for the third, I'd be hard-pressed. But Rube Goldberg would certainly qualify. His wildly complicated machines entered the vocabulary, a \"Rube Goldberg device\" being any overly-engineered contraption which, though perhaps not involving a goat gnawing through a rope releasing a boot to kick a ball through a hoop, uses more steps than necessary.</p><div class=\"RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement\" data-module data-align-center><a class=\"AnchorLink\" id=\"module-df0000\" name=\"module-df0000\"></a> <div class=\"RichTextSidebarModule-title\">Opinion bug</div> <div class=\"RichTextModule-items RichTextBody\"><h2>Opinion</h2></div> </div><p>That said, I would not have noticed, never mind purchased, \"The Rube Goldberg Puzzle Book,\" if it weren't created by my former NU classmate — and ace New Yorker cartoonist — Robert Leighton. Friends buy friends' books — the sales pitch getting harder and harder, year by year. Everyone is so busy.</p><p>Yeah, busy flipping through Instagram.</p><p>Which I do too, for 30 minutes at a throw, watching snippets of \"Peaky Blinders\" and \"The West Wing\" and whatever other mind-decaying fluff some string of code decides is going to mesmerize me today.</p><p>But having purchased a puzzle book ($16, not bad for a hardback) there was a complication I hadn't foreseen. I then had to do puzzles, based on Goldberg's drawings. Initially, they were quite simple — a four-panel comic strip is scrambled. \"Can you figure out the proper order to tell each story?\" Robert asks. Well, you <i>can</i>, but you have to read the panels first, then find the fractured narrative by thinking. And thinking is the one thing you don't do flipping through TikTok.</p><p>But I felt compelled to push on. Not only was the book written by a pal, but the introduction is by Jennifer George, Rube Goldberg's granddaughter and chief creative officer of the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.rubegoldberg.org/\" target=\"_blank\" >Rube Goldberg Institute</a>, \"a not-for-profit organization that uses my grandfather's work to inspire joy, curiosity, and creativity through inefficient machines.\" That also scratched my particular itch — I've been gazing into my newly arrived second grandchild's face a lot lately, musing on two things: first, what could his world possibly be like, say, in 2076? And second, what passing thought, if any, might he someday have for a certain old guy who huzzahed him into the world?</p><p>And here I have somebody's granddaughter running an institute with his name slapped on it. Should that not be supported by <i>zaydes</i> everywhere? Particularly an organization based on drawings that \"make you think.\"</p><p>Yes, thinking can be difficult. That's why so many of us are so hot to offload the process to machines. The Rubicon for me came on Page 14 — a cartoon where every caption letter is replaced by a substitute. \"HOJZJ PCESJGZ EBWJ\" a man exclaims, reaching for his hat. The task is to figure out what is being said. Three letters are given — a sign reading C.P.A., scrambled to \"F.A.B.\"</p><p>\"This is <i>hard</i>,\" I thought, almost giving up. Almost writing to my pal, \"Boo-hoo Rob, your puzzles are too difficult. What am I? Some cryptographer for the Navy?\" (The U.S. Navy once hired Leighton to create a stealth advertising campaign, using codes and enigmatic messages to attract young codebreakers, the puzzles leading like a trail of bread crumbs to employment. He was honored for his service).</p><p>But I didn't. One of the worst things about the online world is, it conditions you to give up, instantly, and move to the next shiny bauble the moment mental effort is required. I parked myself at the kitchen table, grabbed paper and a pencil, and set to studying the dialogue. One word in the fourth panel had an apostrophe, \"FBP'H.\" We knew the F was a C, and B was an A. How many four-letter words begin with CA and have an apostrophe before the last letter? \"CAN'T\" leapt to mind. And I was on my way.</p><p>Solving that one was immensely satisfying. With dozens more to go, I made myself a new daily rule. Before I can even consider wallowing in the mind-wiping joy of thumbing through endless opium on my phone, I must solve the next Rube Goldberg puzzle. When it comes to the online world, they can't take away anything we don't willingly surrender. I say, let's cling to the ability to think. We're going to need it.</p>",
  "title": "Puzzles are the anti-TikTok, the antidote to mind-numbing social media",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-28T16:41:59.623Z"
}