There is no newspaper without a Christmas puzzle these days, but in the north of the country only one counts for many: Dr. Thinker. The puzzle has been in existence for 40 years, remains immensely popular and the identity of Dr. Thinker is still a secret after all these years.
The Dagblad van het Noorden containing the puzzle will be published this Saturday in a five-fold edition. “In other years there were even six times as many printed”, says reporter Maaike Trimbach, reporter at the newspaper, in the NOS Radio 1 News. “But because of corona we have fewer outlets this year.”
The great Dr. Thinker Christmas Puzzle does not appear online, so it is a sport for some to get the special Saturday edition. There are sign-up lists, orders from abroad, from Canada to Australia, and some fans who have moved from the north get into the car on Saturday morning to get another copy. “There are really people who drive from Brabant to Meppel to pick up a newspaper at a petrol station”, Trimbach knows.
It has not become an extra extensive anniversary edition this year. It’s just 40 rebus pictures that represent forty words that together give the solution. Every year the puzzle has a theme and this time it has something to do with fishing: ‘Dr. Thinker has a bite ‘.
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You have to start thinking in all kinds of ways, and you all do that, because you often get stuck on your own.
What makes the picture puzzle so popular, for 40 years? According to Trimbach, the secret is that the riddles are sometimes so difficult that you cannot solve them on your own. “For example, here is a picture with a V in a blue field. A word has to come out of that. You have to start thinking in all kinds of ways, and you do that together, because you often get stuck on your own. Christmas sometimes gets a bit boring after a few days, then you can puzzle together. “
For those who cannot spar with family, there are also puzzle groups online where hints are exchanged. Betraying solutions is prohibited. Whoever does that will be blocked.
More secret than Sinterklaas
The Christmas puzzle has hardly changed in forty years. The biggest difference with the 1980 edition is that the puzzle page was not printed in color at that time. There are now many more Dr. Thinker puzzles: a Christmas Eve puzzle, a New Year’s Eve puzzle and this year an Easter puzzle was added. During the first lockdown this spring, extra day puzzles appeared to dispel the corona boredom. On Facebook and Instagram, Dr. Thinker can also be found, with moving Little Turners.
Dr. Thinker himself is now still completely anonymous. Even at the editorial staff of the Dagblad van het Noorden they don’t know who comes up with the puzzles, says Trimbach. “That is an even bigger secret than Sinterklaas. Only the person who pays the bills for him in our company knows that. I don’t know either. We tried to unravel the secret once, to do an interview, but that is really one no go. Dr. Thinker doesn’t want it and the newspaper doesn’t want it either. “