A strange little side quest
Cardinal Chains may feel immediate, but the ideas around puzzles have been evolving for a very long time. Arthur Wynne published a diamond-shaped 'Word-Cross' in the New York World on December 21, 1913; the name later shifted to 'Cross-Word' and then 'crossword'. That is only half the story. Space Invaders, released in 1978, helped push video games into mainstream popular culture. So a round of Cardinal Chains is not just a quick distraction; it is a tiny stop on a much longer puzzles timeline.
