LONDON — Professor of archaeology and former puzzle enthusiast Hershel Layton has publicly renounced his love of puzzles after having to solve repeated CAPTCHAS on the Internet.

“I’m online a lot for my job,” explained Layton as he sipped from his involuntarily shaking teacup. “Every website I go to these days, there’s another CAPTCHA to solve. At first, I loved it. They’d show me some letters, I typed them in, and then it would remind me of a word riddle that I’d force anyone nearby to figure out. But then I had to select matching images, and find which shape goes where, and figure out which item goes best with the one shown. All of this, who knows how many times, every day … after a while, the captchas stopped reminding me of a puzzle. Puzzles remind me of them.”

Those close to Layton have expressed concern regarding his sudden change in behavior.

“The first few days, it was honestly a relief,” said Layton’s apprentice, Luke Triton. “For once I could have a real conversation with the professor, and it wouldn’t lead to me sliding blocks around for the next hour. But then I saw in the news a strange, populated city had materialized out of nowhere, and he wouldn’t explore it with me. He just spent the whole day teaching college classes. I never saw the professor do that before. Eventually he gave me his entire collection of hint coins, and that’s when I realized … this isn’t just a phase. He’s serious.”

Other friends of the professor have attempted to restore his spirits, but so far have met with little success.

“Oh, you want a puzzle? You want the old professor to dance for you?” screamed a drunken, belligerent Layton at a crying Flora Reinhold. “Fine, here’s a puzzle. Here’s a Layton Original. There are two doors, with two guards … whatever, you know the setup, you filthy puzzle junkie. You want to know the answer? I’ll tell you. You ask the guards what they think about puzzles. Whichever one says ‘Puzzles suck ass. Fuck puzzles,’ he’s the one that’s telling the truth!”

At press time, a concerned Don Paolo removed his disguise and told Layton to go to therapy.