Happy Golfer’s Day! While there are a few different holidays celebrating the game scattered throughout the year, today honors the players of the game. To celebrate, let’s play a round with a Japanese puzzle called Herugolf! Hit the balls around the grid until each of them lands in a hole – but which one?
Happy Leap Day! Every four years, we make up for the fact that the solar year is about 6 hours longer than the 365 days on the Gregorian calendar. To do so, we simply add an extra day at the end of February. This was actually a major plot point in The Pirates of Penzance.
Today’s puzzle is Leapfrog. The Japanese name is Satogaeri, literally “coming home.” This is the first puzzle I’ve introduced in which you must visualize movement. Move the frogs so that each region contains exactly one frog.
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 Sure, it was later rescinded because it wasn’t a new device, but just a composite of two existing products, but we still celebrate the day as National Pencil Day.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.
Everyone knows pumpkin pie just isn’t the same without a giant dollop of whipped cream. Draw vertical or horizontal lines to match each serving of pie with that delicious dose of sugar.
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.
In 2008, Amtrak wanted to raise awareness about the history and benefits of rail travel. They declared National Train Day to fall on the Saturday closest to May 10th each year. May 10th is the anniversary of the pounding of the Golden Spike in Provost, Utah, which completed the first transcontinental railroad. Amtrak discontinued their endorsement of the holiday in 2015, but rail fans continue to celebrate.
In a Train Tracks puzzle, you must connect the two stations with a single rail route, including all the given tracks.
