Ah, the delicious avocado, full of healthy fats, and staple of the keto diet. In 2017, a meal delivery service, Model Meals, declared July 31st to be National Avocado Day, celebrating the peak of the California production season. Sadly, Model Meals is gone, but the holiday lives on. Go enjoy a delicious avocado today!

In honor of the holiday, I’ve reskinned an Alternate Corners puzzle with cute little avocados. Draw a single loop which passes through every cell of the grid.

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!

I first saw a Detective Chess puzzle about a year ago, and the concept intrigued me. Invented by Jaime Poniachik in the late 1970s or early 80s, and received notoriety in Martin Gardner’s Puzzles from Other Worlds, published in 1981. Today is International Chess Day, so this seemed an appropriate puzzle. Can you figure out which chess pieces goes where?

Gummy bears were invented all the way back in the 1920s, but in 1981, an unusual variation appeared. While gummy candy had been all over Europe for over half a century, they didn’t make their way onto US shores until the early 80s. They became such a huge fad that the German company Trolli created Gummy Worms, based on the notion that they’d sell because of the shock factor. (We Gen-Xers were some sick puppies – don’t forget we were the original market for Garbage Pail Kids.)

Created in 2009 by the Math 2.0 Interest Group, Math 2.0 Day celebrates the meeting of math and technology. Think of all the technological innovations you enjoy – at some point, a mathematician was involved to make it happen. So, to any student wondering where they’ll use math in the real world? Everywhere! Today’s puzzle is From 1 to X, a grid puzzle which involves some light math.