Well, that was a transitional period, as METAMAGICAL THEMAS ( N.B. ) was an anagram of MATHEMATICAL GAMES, the column of many years previous authored by Martin Gardner.
So yeah, I remember!
Just to reminisce, I was very amused by Hofstadter's experiment in group cooperation. He wanted people to submit values, the greatest of which so submitted would be remunerated in reciprocal ratio to the value itself. The idea being that people would have to restrain themselves in the knowledge that outlandishly large values would not bear any significant prize.
Of course, he was inundated by every sort of outlandish extrapolation, which he admitted in his column he was not able to evaluate in full, but he mainly lamented the complete failure of his project to engage the public with the subtle premise he presented.
Ah, Bartelby! Ah, humanity!
Your memory is far better than mine!
Thanks for the Bartelby reference. It seems I have some exploring to do. ;-)