Letters submitted to Contingencies regarding the May/June 2020 issue.

By Eric P. Harding
Ours is a family of routines. Especially these days—I’m talking about with kids home for summer vacation, but I might as well be talking about the coronatimes as well—we all need a little structure to help the days fall into place.

By D. Joeff Williams
For the past nine months in this space, I have been sharing small stories and ­material related to two of my favorite distractions when not doing my day job—both seeing and learning about art (more specifically, paintings and sculptures) as well as classic rock music.

By Godfrey Perrott
My wife and I watched Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner recently.

By David Ingram
What do you think? Has the coronavirus rubbed our noses in it again? “It” being our inability to effectively identify and plan for the real risks.

By Warren Manners

By Tom Toce
Here’s another puzzle constructed by one of my test solvers, Jerry Miccolis. Jerry is a retired actuary. He is a serious crossword constructor and lately, an author. Look for his book The Boys of Late Summer, which is about his senior softball team.

By Stephen Meskin
As with many mathematical concepts, “squaring the circle” has become a metaphor, in this case for something impossible to do. The ancient Greeks asked if by using a straight-edge and compass one could draw a square with the same area as a given circle in a finite number of steps.

By Bob Rietz
I’ve been bitten by the genealogy bug. Bad. I’ve spent hours upon hours during the past 25 years poring over German baptismal records and New York City passenger ship manifests.