Machine

Title: Machine

Rating: 2/5

As the final post this year, I'm closing out 2015 with the last pentomino puzzle I've made (the previous three being Five By, Amends, and Tilting).  May your new year be filled with humanity.

The official rules:

• The digits 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 appear in the above puzzle.
• Each shaded region contains exactly one of each of the digits 1 through 5.
• No row or column can contain more than two appearances of any of the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in both of the associated adjacent regions.

Irish Coffee

Title: Irish Coffee

Rating: 3/5

It's unseasonably warm, but today's dreary weather makes this mix (Irish whiskey, hot coffee, and brown sugar, topped with cream) perfect.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

Mirage

Title: Mirage

Rating: 2/5

Amid the desert of your Wednesday, this puzzle is a cool drink of water.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule.  

Maze

Title: Maze

Rating: 3/5

Sometimes it's easier to work from the end than from the beginning.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Caipirinha

Title: Caipirinha

Rating: 1/5

Brazil's national cocktail is made with cachaça, lime, and sugar, served on the rocks.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

What Do You Mean?

Title: What Do You Mean?

Rating: 2/5

Not just a question you might ask during your Thanksgiving holidays, but appropriate for the little tweak in the last rule.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 
• The center square is the geometric mean of the four squares immediately diagonal to it. 

Frame Job

Title: Frame Job

Rating: 3/5

It may be easier to see without the colors, but the shapes of the regions in this week's puzzle are meant to convey a picture, matted and framed.  As has happened before, there are certain cells that belong to intersecting regions, namely those cells in positions (3,5), (5,3), (5,7), and (7,5).  The colors of these cells is the average of the colors of the horizontal and vertical regions that intersect there.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Pisco Sour

Title: Pisco Sour

Rating: 3/5

A mix of Pisco, lime juice, syrup, and egg white, this is drink is served straight up and is celebrated annually in Peru.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

Turn, Turn, Turn

Title: Turn, Turn, Turn

Rating: 2/5

The rotational symmetry of these puzzles lends them, as has been seen before, a certain windmill-ian aspect.  So too here.  But more than that, the colors were chosen to represent each of the seasons.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Day-Glo

Title: Day-Glo

Rating: 2/5

With fall colors on some distant planet, this puzzle should brighten your day.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Hurricane Marilyn

Title: Hurricane Marilyn

Rating: 3/5

There are several versions of drinks that include the word "hurricane" in the name.  This particular one includes rum, whisky, Cointreau, guava juice, cranberry juice, and lemon juice.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

Zeus

Title: Zeus

Rating: 4/5

As one of the more difficult product puzzles, you may feel a little thunderstruck trying to complete this one.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Colors Have Been Twinned

Title: Colors Have Been Twinned

Rating: 4/5

Please pardon the Pocahontas pun.  The puzzle above is not an alternate puzzle.  However, the cells at the following locations don't just abut--they intersect: (2,2), (2,5), (2,8), (5,2), (5,8), (8,2), (8,5), (8,8).  The colors in these cells are the average of the colors of the regions intersecting there.  For example, cell (5,8)--row 5, column 8--is contained in both the horizontal green region and the vertical blue region.


The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Apple Martini

Title: Apple Martini

Rating: 4/5

I'm all for this mix of vodka, apple schnapps, and Cointreau garnished with a cherry in spirit.  Just not so much in practice.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

Turn of the Screw

Title: Turn of the Screw

Rating: 2/5

The title of this product puzzle is belies its difficulty.  Instead it hints at the more challenging nature of some puzzles in the weeks ahead.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Toral Rorschach

Title: Toral Rorschach

Rating: 3/5

Another sum puzzle, and another toral puzzle (the fourth, after Prorus, Circuitry, and Fundamentals).  The properties of a toral board are in the last rule below.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 
• The board is a “toral board,” that is, cells at the end of one row are considered adjacent to those at the beginning of the same row; cells at the end of one column are considered adjacent to those at the beginning of the same column, and all corner cells are considered adjacent.

Tilting

Title: Tilting

Rating: 2/5

Here is the third of four pentomino puzzles, after Five By and Amends.  The title comes from the fact that while the design is rotationally symmetric, the given clues don't quite satisfy that maxim.

The official rules:

• The digits 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 appear in the above puzzle.
• Each shaded region contains exactly one of each of the digits 1 through 5.
• No row or column can contain more than two appearances of any of the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in both of the associated adjacent regions.

Hangman's Blood

Title: Hangman's Blood

Rating: 3/5

A mix of rum, gin, brandy, and porter, this drink is rumored to exacerbate rather than alleviate thirst.  In that way, it's much like these puzzles--I don't like to do just one.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

Synergy

Title: Synergy

Rating: 2/5

As my fall semester begins, I'm hoping for a little bit of synergy in my activity (despite this).

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Law of Averages

Title: Law of Averages

Rating: 3/5

Some fun alterations this week.  In the intersections of rows 2 and 8 and columns 2 and 8, the regions overlap (and the colors are the RGB-averages of the colors of the overlapping regions).  So, for example, the cell in row 8, column 2 belongs to both the horizontal and vertical shaded region passing through it.

The second alteration that gives the puzzle its title is listed in the new rule at the end of the following list.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule.
• Each corner cell contains a number that is the average of the two cells immediately adjacent to it. 

Mojito

Title: Mojito

Rating: 3/5

A mid-August drink if there ever was one, this mix of white rum, lime juice, mint and sugar is exactly what you need.  Right this minute.


The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

Ripples

Title: Ripples

Rating: 3/5

Take this product puzzle as a calming influence against the impending chaos of a looming school year.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Bloom

Title: Bloom

Rating: 2/5

It's been a little while since a sum puzzle has been semi-relaxing.  Let this one bring forth thoughts of a cool spring during the dog days of summer.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule.

Brandy Alexander

Title: Brandy Alexander

Rating: 1/5

A classic drink, known to Feist fans, fans of Days of Wine and Roses, and others.  It's a mix of cognac, Crème de cacao, and fresh cream, garnished with nutmeg.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

Color Blur

Title: Color Blur

Rating: 2/5

One day my older daughter saw me trying (in vain) to come up with a name for this puzzle.  I had some version of writer's block--the kind least likely to matter, I suppose.  I decided to let her name this puzzle, and "Color Blur" is what she came up with.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Fundamentals

Title: Fundamentals

Rating: 4/5

This is another toral board puzzle, to join the ranks of Prorus and Circuitry.  As a reminder about the alteration, check out the last rule below.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule.
• The board is a “toral board,” that is, cells at the end of one row are considered adjacent to those at the beginning of the same row; cells at the end of one column are considered adjacent to those at the beginning of the same column, and all corner cells are considered adjacent. 

Savoy Affair

Title: Savoy Affair

Rating: 3/5

A mix of peach brandy, lime juice, passion fruit juice, and Fraise de Bois (strawberry-flavored) liqueur, this seems like the definition of "fruit-forward."

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

Lighten Up

Title: Lighten Up

Rating: 2/5

Given the desire to have a puzzle where the colors steadily faded as one travels inward, there are lots of un-twisty regions.  Hence the easier rating.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Microscopic

Title: Microscopic

Rating: 4/5

I suppose this one would pair nicely with Petri Dish in name, but it's not quite as difficult as that one.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule.