This appeared in the Otago Daily Times on February 15, 1926 — 13 years before Churchill’s famous enigma-and-riddle flourish. In a radio broadcast on October 1, 1939, Churchill delivered his classic: "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Churchill — brilliant writer, speaker and wit — may not have been as original as we like to think. In Star Trek: Voyager, the Doctor calls the Vulcan brain "a puzzle wrapped inside an enigma housed inside a cranium".

Source: Otago Daily Times February 13, 2026 15:56 UTC