Puzzle 94: Eliza Pseudonym of Puzzlania 7

I learned six new words in the process of making this puzzle. What could be better than that?

During a six-day period from Monday through Saturday, Eliza Pseudonym and her friends Anna, Barbra, Carla, Delilah, and Fiona have subscribed to an internet mailing list that features a new word every day. No two women subscribed on the same day. On each day during the six-day period, a different word has been featured (abulia, betise, caryatid, dehisce, euhemerism, and floruit, in some order). From the clues below, determine the day on which each woman subscribed, and the day on which each word was featured.

1. Exactly one of the women has a name beginning with the same letter of the alphabet as the word featured on the day that she subscribed to the mailing list.
2. The word "caryatid" was featured precisely two days prior to Fiona joining the mailing list.
3. Carla joined the mailing list on Friday.
4. Anna signed up for the mailing list precisely one day after the word "euhemerism" was highlighted.
5. Wednesday's word did not end with the letter "e".
6. Barbra subscribed precisely three days after the word "dehisce" was featured.

Puzzle 93: Polyominous 12

No comment.

Puzzle 92: Pearls of Wisdom 7

No comment.

Puzzle 91: Room and Reason 7

No comment.

Puzzle 90: Blackbarrier Jam 5

This puzzle is dedicated to Dave Stigant. (He'll know why.)

Puzzle 89: Streaming Content 7

No comment.

Puzzle 88: Polyominous 11

For reasons that are too complex to discuss here, I had no Internet access for a while. Sorry for the lack of involvement in this blog lately. :3

Puzzle 86: Fencing Match 10

I believe this is the largest puzzle of this type I've ever seen with no givens on the perimeter. The second-largest is puzzle 54 from Nikoli's Slitherlink 14 (which is a 14x24 puzzle). I've also seen a handful of 10x10 puzzles without givens on the perimeter (and made one, to boot). In any case, I'm very proud of this creation. (And to think it only took a few hours to make. . . :P )

As of October 24, 2008, this puzzle is now officially the puzzle that distracted webcomic creator Ben Heaton from telling me that he had used my idea in Request Comics. I think Request Comics is the best thing since photographs of sliced bread, so check it out!

Rules -- Blackbarrier Jam

Blackbarrier Jam was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Kurodoko, FKA Where is Black Cells). It is one of several of their puzzles based on the unique rules regarding the placement of black cells in Japanese crosswords.


1. Determine whether each cell is white or black according to the following rules.
2. No numbered cell may be black.
3. A number indicates how many grid cells, including the cell itself, lie in an uninterrupted horizontal or vertical line from that cell, up to the perimeter of the puzzle, or a black cell (whichever is closer).
4. No two black cells may share an edge. All of the white cells must be connected to each other through their edges.

Puzzle 79: Totally Awesum 6

No comment.

Puzzle 75: Eliza Pseudonym of Puzzlania 6


Eliza Pseudonym is an avid watcher of the daytime soap opera The Middle-Aged and the Narcoleptic. A recent five-day period from Monday through Friday has had quite a lot of plot development! Each day's episode featured one of five characters (Harmony, Irene, Jake, Kit, and Lee) sharing a different secret with one of the other five characters. Over the course of the week, each character had divulged one secret, and learned one secret. From the clues below, determine which character confessed a secret on each episode, which character learned the secret, and what each secret was.

1. The episode on which Irene revealed a secret (which wasn't Monday's episode) aired either two days before or two days after the episode on which was heard the line, "It was I who ate your last oatmeal raisin cookie. Forgive me, Kit. . . ."
2. Harmony is not the character who admitted, "I wouldn't want to let the others know, but I feel like I have to be honest with you. . . my two favorite video games are Mario is Missing! and E.T. for the Atari."
3. Jake sobbed, "I dare not tell my wife, because it'd threaten our marriage, but when she's not around, I like to read. . . this is embarrassing. . . Sudoku magazines!" sometime before Irene learned a secret, but sometime after Lee learned a secret; these three episodes were not aired on three consecutive days.
4. Irene is not the character who was told the shocking words, "The neighborhood kids didn't toilet paper your house last week. I. . . I DID IT! I'M SORRY!"
5. The episode on which Kit told a secret and the episode where a character said, "Please don't judge me for what I'm about to tell you, but. . . I listen to country music and rap music. . ." were aired consecutively, in some order.
6. On Thursday's episode, a character entrusted his or her secret to Harmony.

Logicsmith Exhibition 1: Polyominous (RESULTS!)

Two weeks ago, I invited my readers to craft a Polyominous puzzle with the givens in a particular arrangement for my first Logicsmith Exhibition. The response was. . . abysmal. I mean, maybe it's because my blog doesn't have a million billion readers, but I promoted this thing on The Grey Labyrinth forum, and I still only got one other valid puzzle submission, from Dave Stigant. Did I make the aesthetic too hard to work with? Was the grid too big? Did I underpromote? Is logicsmithing simply a rarer talent than I had hoped? I honestly do not know. Readers, please give me feedback as a comment on this post! I want to have another Logicsmith Exhibition at some point, so I would like to know what I should do differently. In the meanwhile, here are both of the puzzles:
dstigant's puzzle:mathgrant's puzzle:
For better or worse, the puzzles are very stylistically different. Honestly, I prefer mine, because it has more of a Nikoli flavor, but I'm probably biased. ;) But yeah. . . there we go. Those are the results.

Puzzle 74: Polyominous 10

The puzzle I constructed for my first Logicsmith Exhibition. I rather like it! :)

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