Whay Are You So Puzzled? (6)

Mini-Cross Puzzle #6

Answers for Puzzle #5:     

Across: 1. adobe        Down: 2. gravely
             5. Noma                 3. pennant
             6. heel                    4.  hobbitt
             7. Hobbitt
 Movie:  Body Heat

Why Are You So Puzzled? (5a)

Consider this a continuation of yesterday's post since it is going to be about a puzzle too. Let's have a look at another one of those number puzzles I mentioned earlier. The last attempt at an explanation wasn't really very good so, here goes again!





Here's a sample puzzle with four given numbers and all the totals of rows, columns and diagonals. We want to find a row or column which can only accommodate two ones or two nines. Look at the second column. A total of 6 must be added in 3 digits. These digits could be 4,1 and 1. Place the 4 above the 7 and the ones in the last two spaces of the column.

Now check out the second row from the top. It contains two fours, leaving 26 - 8 or 18 tto fill into 2 spaces. Two nines are the only possibility. We see that the placement of the 9's and ones confirms the four placed in the second column. If that 4 were a five, one of the ones would have to be zero but that's impossible. If the four were a three one of the nines must go up to ten, also impossible.



Search for other similar situations with the remaining numbers and blanks. 

The third column needs a total of 6 to complete so try a five and a one with the five in the top row. Now a nine is needed in the top 

The rest fills in easily


VOILA!

Why Are You So Puzzled? (5)

Sarah Palin - Some Alaskan Republicans Are Hypocrites
Publicly Admitting Leeching International Nursing

Wow! It almost defies belief.Sarah Palin speaking in Calgary admits to stealing health care from Canadians and now she's been criticizing our system. Her family crossed the border from Alaska to Yukon to get publicly funded health care from clinics in Whitehorse. That would be considered Free Trade wouldn't it?And they have the gall to complain about some 2x4s we try to sell in their market. But maybe Sarah Palin is on to something here somewhat the way she mistakenly used the word irony correctly. Instead of going to all the trouble of creating a new American Healthcare System, the US could just give us a couple of trillion dollars and they could all use ours. We might need a few more bridges and border crossings but that would create thousands of construction jobs. There could be an entire Healthcare zone along the border with a hospital or clinic every few kilometres. Imagine the spin-offs! Thanks Sarah.

Why Are You So Absent?

Some reasons for my two week hiatus:

Flu - Feeling Lousy Unrelentingly. Whatever I have, H1N1 or H5N1 or HEINY or Dopey or Grumpy, this is one mean bug that settles in the bronchi and just sits in there and tickles you to death.

OLYMPICS - We've already been through this one. The last week was very exciting especially for us Canadians so it was difficult not to get stuck all day in front of the tube.There isn't a lot more to say but I have a comment or two.

• Where do Speed skaters go for their street clothes?Those glutes and vasti extremi won't slide into your ordinary Levi 501's without some lubrication or outsizing.
• These could have been called the "Beautiful Olympics." if you're extremely shallow. There were seriously high numbers of very attractive people participating, with the possible exception of Kevin Martin. Some of those bobsledders (the guys) were as homely as pickle barrels too but all in all Beauties outscored Beasts.
  
• We should have had another week of competition so that "Win the Podium" could have succeeded completely. New competitions might include "Archathalon," a combination of archery and cross-country skiing. "Remote juggling" could be judged on YouTube with varying degrees of difficulty as the number and volatility of the remotes increases. Snow-finding would be a useful competition and probably very lucrative.
• WTG Canada!!!!!!!!!!!!

Solution for Mini-cryptic Puzzle #4

Across:
1. ogees (SEE, GO reversal)
5. Etna (NEAT anagram)
6. test (two meanings)
7. dairy (RAID anagram+Y)

Down:
2. Grantor (GRANT+OR)
3. emboss (EM+BOSS)
4. strata (A START anagram)

Movie: STARGATE

Why Are You So Puzzled? (4)

PUZZLE #3 ANSWERS:

Across: 1. Swipe 5. Tune 6. Bali, 7. Strep
Down: 2. Warsaw 3. Patriot 4. insane
Sign: WET PAINT

Why Are You So Challenged?

It's Saturday February 13, 2010. Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow and Happy Family Day on Monday. Today's the day the secret of THE CHALLENGER is revealed. You'll find it on P7, in the puzzles and comics section of the Saturday Star. Get over it! Go buy one.

For reference let's number the rows 1 to 6 from bottom to top and the columns will be 1 to 5 from left to right.

The fist thing to look for is a row or column with a low total. Look at column 3. Subtract the given number,6 , from the total of 12 for the column and we have 6 left to make up in that column. This can be made up with a 4 and 2-ones. But where to place them? Consider row 4. If the 4 is placed in the third square , the ones go above and below it.

The current total then for row 4 is 7. Subtract this from 25, leaving 18. This must be made up with 2-nines.

Looking for similar relationships, check column 4. 16-9-2=5 which is made up with a 4 and 1-one. Place the 4 in row 3. The remaining square in row 3 must be 9. The rest of the puzzle is duck soup, as the Marx brothers would say.

Let me know whether or not this makes any sense at all.

Why Are You So Puzzled (3)

MINI-CROSS PUZZLE #3




















ANSWERS for PUZZLE #2
Across: 3. miasma, 5. antonym, 7. bottom
Down: 1. riot, 2. Tammy, 4. barbs, 6. neon Place: Manitoba


Many of you may be familiar with a number puzzle, The Challenger. It is syndicated across the continent including in the Toronto Saturday Star. It is credited to Linus Maurer, an artist and cartoonist who was also a friend of Charles Schulz. Mr. Maurer's puzzle consists of a 4x4 square grid in which 4 numbers from 1 to 9 are placed so that there is only one given number in any of the four rows or four columns. Along the bottom and right side of the grid are given numbers which represent the totals of all the digits in each row, column and diagonal. The object is to enter digits from 1-9 into the blank spaces in the rows and columns so that the totals are all met. I hesitate to show an example here because this puzzle is copyrighted and I don't wish to infringe on that. I think my description is accurate.

What irks me about this puzzle is that a "Working Time" is given in minutes and seconds to guide a player, presumably into comparing oneself with the rest of the puzzling population. How does he know how long it should take anyone let alone give that time to the second? It seems disingenuous to even quote such a figure. I want to show you how to solve this puzzle in under a minute, every time. And I will do this in a post on this blog next Saturday February 13. I'll use the numbers for that day's puzzle in the Star for the explanation. Your time is too valuable to waste so much of it on the Challenger. Let me show you how to drastically cut that time and you can then spend more time googling other stuff.

Why Are You So Puzzled (2)

A minicross puzzle is solved like any crossword puzzle, with an added feature. When all the words have been entered according to the clues provided, the circled letters that are common to crossing words can be unscrambled to form another word or phrase. The final answer to the puzzle may be a song, book or movie title, a famous name, a place, a common phrase, word or well-known saying. The puzzle is not interactive but it's a .jpg so you can just print it. Have fun!

Answers for Puzzle #1:
Across: 3. Ionic; 6. Needled; 7. Olive
Down: 1. Tinny; 2. Acclaim; 4. Neeson; 5. Adder
Famous Name: Celine Dion


These "ice floats," (my term) are definitely puzzling. They are about six inches in diameter on average. These were just downstream of a dam. Weather was clear and sunny with a temperature of about -5 deg. C. There were no little green men around either. They looked like white doughnuts floating in a huge fryer. Does anyone know what they're called or how they're formed? There were some as wide as two feet in another part of the river

WhyAre You So Puzzled?

Anyone who is trying to quit smoking knows that any activities which break the regular routine are beneficial to the quitter. Try a "Minicross" puzzle which is solved like any crossword puzzle, with an added feature. When all the words have been entered according to the clues provided, the circled letters that are common to crossing words can be unscrambled to form another word or phrase. The final answer to the puzzle may be a song, book or movie title, a famous name, a place, a common phrase, word or well-known saying. From time to time there will be a mini-cryptic for those who are so inclined. Have fun! Answers will be given next Monday Feb. 4, 2010.

Copyright 2010 Stargeazer.