Hi!

An old friend of mine — Kevin — emailed earlier this week to share his new creation. It’s an iPhone game called Slide Tap, and it’s a crossword puzzle-style mini game. And if you’re a long-term reader of Now I Know, you know I love things like this.

As seen below, Slide Tap is a mix of a crossword (obviously) and a tile-sliding game. You’re given a clue or two, figure out the target words, then tap and slide tiles into position — leaving one open space at a time. Tiles flash green when they land exactly where they belong, giving you that perfect hit of instant feedback every time you make progress.

It sounds simple, and that’s the beauty of it. The rules take about ten seconds to learn, but it remains a challenge. In early levels, you only need to get one word into place; then (as seen below), it gets harder. I’m not a great spatial thinker, so I had to untangle two words in the same grid, it got pretty tough.

It’s free and brand new, so give Kevin some help and give it a try. If you love it, give it a nice rating in the App Store. And if you don’t, either blame me or, even better, let me know how it can get better. Kevin asked if anyone has ideas/suggestions for upgrades and future versions, they let him know; I’m glad to pass it along.

Have fun!

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: How The Pringles Man Got His Name: There’s an xkcd cartoon about this idea (but not this example).

Tuesday: The Ordinary People Who Saved the Bluebird: I tried to make a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah reference here but I couldn’t make it work.

Wednesday: Air Plane: The toy does not exist, except for in your imagination. But that makes it so much more fun!

Thursday: Swing and a Miss: I’m writing these words while sitting in an airport on my way to watch some baseball (in February!!) so I figured this would be an appropriate story to reshare.

Long Reads and Other Things

Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:

1) “Recreating the Smells of History” (Knowable Mag, 9 minutes, January 2026). A look at how scientists recreate scents lost to time.

2) “The Snowball Effect“ (Aeon, 23 minutes, February 2026). The subhead: “Our planet was once a harsh, alien, icy world. Yet this deep freeze may have shaped you, me, and all life on Earth.”

3) “If You Think This Instrument Is Hard to Play, Try Building One” (New York Times/gift link, 12 minutes, January 2026). The subhead: “The oboe has 500 parts. Turning a profit is a killer. But Jim Phelan is bent on reviving one of the great names in classical music.”

Have a great weekend!

Dan