I love finding unique holidays to theme a puzzle around. In Japan, Kakizome takes place on the second of January. It’s meant to celebrate one of the major traditional arts – calligraphy. This practice began as a court event during the Heian era during the late 8th century. They would make ink with water drawn on the morning of the first day, then write short aspirational poetry for the year.
On this day in 1858, Hymen Lipman received US Patent # 19,783 for a pencil with an attached eraser. Sure, it was later rescinded because it wasn’t a new device, but just a composite of two existing products, but we still celebrate the day as National Pencil Day.
Much later, in 2017, a Japanese teenager submitted a new puzzle themed around pencils to Nikoli magazine that quickly gained popularity, because it seemed to capture the essence of solving pencil puzzles.
Draw pencils into the grid. Each pencil must also draw a line as long as itself, so that all grid cells are used.
It’s that time of year again! Head to the store with a list for pencils, pens, tissue paper, a new design for your Trapper Keeper — wait, wrong decade… Anyway, today we have another Pencils puzzle. I still love that this particular type of puzzle was invented by a student.
Draw pencils into the grid. Each pencil must also draw a line as long as itself, so that all grid cells are used.
Happy Presidents Day! Today, I put together a puzzle with a presidential quote, then broke it up into polyominoes. Simply assemble them in the grid above to reveal the wisdom from the past.
Today, we have a Pure Loop puzzle. Draw a route that visits all empty cells without crossing itself or branching.
Hidden in this grid is a specific battleship fleet, pictured below. It contains a Carrier, two Battleships, three Cruisers, four Destroyers, and five Submarines. Given that no ship may be adjacent to another in any direction, can you deduce the correct positions?
Everyone loves candy, so you picked up a gift box. The problem is, they only want a specific set of pieces, and none of them can touch each other, even diagonally. Can you deduce which of the possible placements to fill in with the candy that fits their preference?
When he took a fantasy wargame and created his own rules focused on small-scale combat with only a few individuals, Gary Gygax started a revolution. Gradually, Chainmail evolved into Dungeons and Dragons, and the concept of role-playing games was born. When he passed away in 2008, fans around the world declared his birthday, July 27th, to be Gary Gygax Day. So let’s celebrate with a new type of puzzle!
It’s the first day of Spring! A time of renewal, when we start seeing beautiful wildflowers, and a lot of young animals. I hear this has something to do with the birds and the bees, so that seems as good a theme for a puzzle as any.
Draw horizontal and vertical lines to match each bee with a bird.
For today, we’ll play a popular loop puzzle called Slitherlink, or sometimes simply Fences. Draw a single closed loop between nodes.
