Puzzle 605: Straight and Arrow 43

In just a few days, on May 26, I will hold a drawing to see who wins a copy of Battle of LITS! If you have a BoardGameGeek account, tip some GeekGold to earn some raffle entries and potentially win!

My family's finances haven taken a sharp downturn due to my father needing surgery. For more details, see this Geeklist (the header and the comments), where you can also bid on board games and video games I am selling to raise money. I am also grateful to the individuals so far who have donated funds without expecting anything in return (including a few readers of this blog). You are amazing.

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Puzzle 597: Straight and Arrow 42

Joshua Zucker took me up on my recent offer to throw in a free re-gifted calendar with 365 handmade Sudoku puzzles with the $25 purchase of my amazing board game Battle of LITS. In deciding what type of puzzle to make for him, I looked at his initials and immediately thought of "Party in the USA" ("And a Jay-Z song was on. . ."). Then I thought of the oft-neglected J and Z tetrominoes, which are really just mirror images of L and S, and therefore given no special treatment in Battle of LITS. These tetrominoes are the stars of this puzzle. Would you like to see what kind of puzzle your name inspires? I still have extra copies of Battle of LITS. . . . :)

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Puzzle 579: Straight and Arrow 41

No comment.

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Puzzle 567: Straight and Arrow 40

chaotic_iak (who inspired me to write a puzzle at 4:00 AM when I should have been going back to sleep) told me that my previous puzzle "has many givens", and I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not, so I made with puzzle with 4 fewer givens!

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Puzzle 566: Straight and Arrow 39

I apologize for not having a Monday Mutant prepared this week. Have this instead.

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Puzzle 563: Straight and Arrow 38

No comment.

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March Mutant 15: Straight and Arrow / Pearls of Wisdom (total blacks)

In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, the loop may pass through a black cell, but only if it turns in that cell, and goes straight through both adjacent cells in the loop (as though passing through a black pearl in Pearls of Wisdom). All such cells (where the loop turns in that cell and goes straight through both adjacent cells) must be black. The other rules regarding black cells still apply.

March Mutant 4: Straight and Arrow (domino)

In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, instead of no two black cells being allowed to share an edge, every black cell must share an edge with EXACTLY ONE other black cell. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Puzzle 541: Straight and Arrow 37

No comment.

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Puzzle 513: Straight and Arrow 36

No comment.

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Monday Mutant 86: Straight and Arrow (incorrect)

In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, none of the clues are correct. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Heard of Indirect Yajilin? This is Incorrect Yajilin. Har har.

Puzzle 501: Straight and Arrow 35

No comment.

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Monday Mutant 85: Straight and Arrow (domino)

In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, instead of no two black cells being allowed to share an edge, every black cell must share an edge with EXACTLY ONE other black cell. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

As as few of my readers have noticed, I've finally gotten around to adding sharing buttons to this blog, including Google's new +1 button. They are located very unobtrusively just below the title of each post, in the "Posted on July 4, 2011" line. If you're a long-time reader and there are older puzzles you found particularly memorable, feel free to search the archives for them and +1 them!

Puzzle 491: Straight and Arrow 34

In precisely 42 days, I will turn 24! Yayyyyyy!

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Puzzle 487: Straight and Arrow 33

No comment.

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Monday Mutant 51: Straight and Arrow (indirect)

In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, a number followed by a question mark represents how many black cells are in at least one of the four orthogonal directions (that is, the question mark can be replaced by an up arrow, a down arrow, a left arrow, or a right arrow, and be a normal Straight and Arrow clue). A number followed by an x means that none of the four orthogonal directions contain that many black cells. (Note that for the purposes of a 0? or a 0x on an edge or in a corner, any orthogonal direction which would point off of the grid is excluded.) A number followed by a plus sign represents the total number of black cells in all four orthogonal directions. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Monday Mutant 50: Straight and Arrow (indirect)

In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, a number followed by a plus sign represents the total number of black cells in all four orthogonal directions. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

 It would not appear that MellowMelon has ever made an Indirect Yajilin with nothing but plus sign clues.

Puzzle 448: Straight and Arrow 32

No comment.

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Puzzle 438: Straight and Arrow 31

Issue 10 of Sudoku Xtra is out! It contains three puzzles submitted by me. What does that have to do with the puzzle below? Nothing.

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Puzzle 424: Straight and Arrow 30

No comment.

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