Difficulty score 38.

go

Done

start

Argh. Having to start over and going to use greens now.

done, nice hard one

done. no greens

go

done

i,m back!

go

done

go

Good morning to all, and especially my prayer group

Done, no greens. That was a REALLY fun puzzle. At first, I thought I was going to need greens as I couldn't find anything but it worked out. Really fun.

Now to get the Reluctant 7-Year-Old [TM] out of bed and off to school.

you are pully our collective legs, are you not?? NO GREENS??

Andy

i can't even get a single number

nor can I

start.

i was able to find two 4's...yikes!!

g'morning kat...

'mornin', smooth_pappa!

I think I just found those same two 4s

where was the two 4?

Ok, who wants to pray with me?

somewhere on the left, and another one sort of in the middle-ish area ;)

haha

btw, there might also be a 9 located in a box somewhere near a 4 located in this puzzle

hehehe...

can't find it

and with that...this puzzle is over my head for the amount of time i have this morning...i suppose i'll come back later and see if i can also beat it without greens like Andy (although not likely - too new at this :) )

have a great day, all!

good luck... I've still got 25 minutes to burn before I leave for work. I might have a fighting cance. Have a good day

thanks - good luck to you!

good lord! andy, I give you props for doing this greenless... I think I may have to pop some in to open my eyes

or not... I think I just found a key for me

done! also greenless! but it took a long time

this doesn't look good, if his higness King Smooth took over 20 minutes :)

the two 4's came easy enough; now what?

10 filled without greens, not too bad so far...

16, stuck...

Done, no greens, but it took a while. Good puzzle :)

I really love this puzzle. You CAN do it greenless with no advanced techniques. You just need to be patient and work it out. Really fun.

hello everybody

yo

done. no greens.

have a nice day everybody

that was a fun puzzle today! :)

man, i'm getting no traction on this at all, with our without greens - will start again later when i am less distracted by this crazy storm pummeling san francisco

I was thinking the same thing... I am frustrated.

Awful for me too! Going away for 2 wks and will have to attempt this along with the 2 wks' puzzles. GOT ONLY 1 NUMBER AND WITH GREENS!!

go (trying it with animals)

starting over, with numbers

quitting. moving to an easy. guess the brain is not ready for a hard one yet.

first puzzle in months and I'm stuck. done greens, only found one number so far.

I finally got it! After much retrial and error. This is hardest by far, exceeding many experts I have done in the past. Happy Happy Joy Joy!

well done! (and good to know it's harder than 'hard') : )

i don't know, this one was for me not that hard ... there was always an 'easy' solution. i.e. there was no need to do any complex solving techniques that i don't know anyway ;) i'd advise you people who are stuck to look at your rows and columns closely.

start on the 4's, then look for a 9.

Finished. Toughest one I have ever done.

My program rated this 1 standard deviation above the mean for hard puzzles. I'm not sure why so many of you are finding this so tough. Maybe it's the pattern of the clues?

Of course my program is not infallible, but this time I think it is right.

i'm not sure. for whatever reason, the clues jumped out at me the whole time, i didn't need greens or anything. i was constantly thinking 'oh! look at THAT!'

start

I am fairly certain that the difficulty of the puzzle depends at least as much on subjective factors (alertness, optimism vs. pessimism) as the objective factors (difficulty of the solving techniques).

My program can only measure the objective factors, and it does not do that perfectly or even near perfectly.

I've had tavern steaks that weren't this tough

right. it may have helped that when i did it, all the most recent comments were about how it was such a fun and easy puzzle ;)

The most advanced techniques needed to solve this puzzle are hidden and naked pairs.

I am told a few beers can help those tavern steaks go down.

But I don't believe the same is true for Sudoku.

i had some english beer with strawberry flavoring the other day and that was very good

Strawberry ale?

might have been ... my bf picked it up at the liquor store for me to try because i hate beer in general but he heard english beer is completely different

You might like mead (fermented honey).

well I started the puzzle in a great mood, but my mood steadily declined because I was just not seeing the numbers as usual- I don't know why I found it so difficult, but do feel glad I did get it.

real mead is good

fake USA Meade sucks (honey flavored white wine)

maybe so, i like sweet things :) (i could say 'like my bf' but he doesn't visit this site so why bother, haha)

that DOES sound crappy, ab

ahhh, i am just 3 more puzzles away from having all of them completed :) then i can start spending my time working and paying attention to my kid, like i used to do!

go

done... no greens.. the start took the longest and pretty soon it was smooth sailing

geez, that took forever

Go.

First move, a virtual virtual. Neat.

complete yes! start time 8.50 - once started no stopping. Was a tricky one.

That's fast especially for this one.

Almost everything is virtual and virtual virtual.

is that posh for 'guesswork'?

No. It means something definite.

Done no the less, once you get goin it's fast

none the less even.

I've used a distributive elimination. Really neato.

what's that?

:s

A distributive elimination, in this case, was where a block and a line shared three cells, and each had a fourth cell which needed the same number. So between the two fourth cells, they eliminated all numbers but one.

It does take a process of elimination.

ah yes, thanks, I do that, just didn't know the proper term for it. Still stuck! :)

yeah, i don't know any of the terms, i just chalk it all up to logic ;) 2 puzzles away from elite!

I make up terms. The thought process is different when you don't use greens, so my terms are different from those used by the green using crowd.

when I play with pen and paper, I limit the dots, but on screen, I rather like the green. Definitely a different way of thinking.

yeah. i first try to solve without greens, then if i get totally frustrated (because i can't keep all the possibles straight in my mind) i start to make instances where only two spaces are possible in a block ... most puzzles can be solved from that point without filling in all the cells

that's what I do :)

yay! we're like twins :D

hahaha! twinies! :D

not entirely tho, i'm not good at babble ... partly because i know i can't devote that much of my life to it :)

no greens

Good going HK.

I stopped babble when I gave myself RSI after a massive grid. Used to be top here too. Very time consuming, true. : /

well done hk

hursh still keeps up, doesn't she? it seems she always does both everyday :) it's amazing

that's amazing. a lot of my old crowd aren't really around anymore

oh yeah? i pretty much was gone from here for 5 months straight, over the summer. which is why it's taken so long to catch back up

I'm not sure I'll ever catch up on my backlog, but it's lovely to be back just for today, listen to music, ponder the grid. :)

one more grid, woohoo! ... of course, it's an expert

good luck!

thx :)

finished! that was hard, but got it after a false start. :)

good job! :D

thanks :)

yay done! ... i'm not sure what i'm going to do with my time now but cya later everybody :D

laters! :D

oh, phooey. gotta start over

this one's a monster

well... for me, anyway

don't know why... I found it impossible too! (well, Nearly impossible... it is done now)

this is a pain in the butt, no greens with some exploration

loved it loved it loved it :)

And now, archives.

I agree with Drwho, part of a puzzle's difficulty is the attitude one brings to it. I had read others did this with no greens so I knew I could as well. I think if I read "this is impossible" I would have gone for the auto greens and not even tried. Who knows?

And now the last undone expert. 12/30/06. After this, I have 67 easies left before archives are complete.

clear head. zen. that's all.

zen good.

well actually i don't know a lot about zen but i get the idea that stuff just flows in it and that is how sudoku is

And now, 67 easies between me and elite bliss :)

like right now, for example, the haitians need to come to america. but some people are all, what about the strain on our resources?

but it's like, for my father's fiftieth birthday party, i put RSVP on the invitations because it was, like, a sit-down dinner. but some people came who, like, did not RSVP.

i had to haul ass to the kitchen, redistribute the food, but at the end of the day it was like, the more the merrier, right?

and so if the government could just get to the kitchen and rearrange some things, we could certainly party with the haitians.

and in conclusion, may i remind you...

that it does NOT say RSVP on the STATUE of LIBERTY!

Which you think it would because, you know, it's from France and all...

(because RSVP is french? get it?) oh never mind.

Stupid writer's strike. I have no good material.

i get it.

my material is from before the strike.

lol

You stockpiled. Very smart.

no really, it's from "clueless"

i have very little originality in me, most everything i say is stolen.

heh

the most beautiful thing about that speech of cher's is that when they wrote it, they just thought, "haitians"

but alicia silverstone was only 17 and... well... not all that well educated perhaps

You know, I just discovered something that makes these puzzles far easier. I always thought they went up to 15. But I noticed that none of them have numbers higher than 9. Now that I know that, they are much easier to finish.

and so she said "haiti - ans"

hehe

and they made everyone promise not to tell her that was wrong because it fit so perfectly and they knew she would want to change it if she knew

My wife (aa, who is sitting next to me reading as well doing her own puzzle and, as always, not posting) is shocked I've never seen Clueless. I suspect the netflix queue will be adjusted shortly.

it is one of my top 3 movies.

My top 3 movies are usually the last 3 I've seen.

Well, not really.

ok maybe top 5.

#1 is princess bride, of course.

Dem fine movie.

and then there's mary poppins and clueless and cold comfort farm and bringing up baby and it's hard to put those in any sort of order.

oh, have you been reading the magician's nephew?

I read it to my son about 2 months ago. Maybe 1... we're on Prydain by Lloyd Alexander now (and my wife is reading Watership Down to him now as well)

Bringing up Baby is one of my favorites.

my top five movies are all comedies, look at that. that is bc of my depression, i like things that cheer me up.

My list, loosely (it changes a lot) is: Love, Actually; LA Story; Some Like it Hot; Stardust; Moulin Rouge; Ever After; Princess Bride

just passing by,------------- so what do you say to a duck when you want it to lower its head? *poof*

only 3 of my top 10 are serious movies, and only one of them could be considered sad.

ever after? really?

Gods, i do like a lot of chick flicks, don't I?

i don't mean bc it's a chick flick...

i just mean it's so... predictable

Well, it is a retelling of an old story...

but with a nice twist.

(the feminist angle)

a predictable twist.

to each his/her own

I don't know inge ... what do you say to a duck?

you say DUCK!

"Ray, if someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!"

Ah, yes. Add Ghostbusters to my list :)

i mean i like the feminist angle and all but it's so obvious. and the acting is not all-around first rate... esp on drew's part.

i mean i LIKED it but it wouldn't make a list... i will stop now.

I don't watch it for the big drama. It's a feel good movie.

I think of Princess Bride the same way. It's a cute movie.

but princess bride has SO many funny random lines

My fav's are "the cutting edge", Mrs. Congeniality, Mrs. Doubtfire (first movie my hubby took me too when we were dating)

all delivered perfectly.

oooh... I haven't seen Mrs. Doubtfire in years!

there's a mrs. congeniality?

errr ... Miss

be a good sequel title, wouldn't it? :)

lol ... sure would

Oh, forgot Strictly Ballroom

I haven't seen the princess bride ... guess i need to rent it

i guess you do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this weekend!!!!!!!!!

*boggle* I thought everyone on Earth (even people in the third world with no electricity) had seen it...

this is a red alert situation

Who's in it?

how old is it?

Um.. .it was Robin Wright (Penn)'s first movie. 20 years ago

cary elwes, robin wright, wallace shawn,

Cary Elwes, Many Patinkin, Wally Shawn

mandy patinkin, christopher guest, chris sarandon,

andre the giant, billy crystal, valerie kane,

Music by Mark Knopfler, directed by Rob Reiner

not valerie... Carol kane

peter falk, fred savage, mel smith...

ooh hahaha i was going too fast

hmmm okay sounds like one I'd like

what's the one with Robin Wright and Kevin Costner

message in a bottle.

That's a good one :)

Paul Newman

In college I made a video in which I spliced a scene from Star Wars with a scene from Pricess Bride. PB: Narrator, "That day she was suprised to discover that when he said 'As you wish' what he meant was 'I love you.'" Star Wars: "Tarkin (as Vader is choking someone) Vader! Release him!" Vader: "As you wish"

lol

lol

My favorite movie marathon was all the movies edited by Richard Chew. Star Wars, Real Genius... I forget the others... it's funny how many varied movies he edited, both good and bad. I loved running marathons like that.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0156816/

Quite the career he's got going... haven't checked on him in a decade :)

lol

Back to my puzzle. *turtling*

lol the chat has helped me find some obivious things I was missing on April 19, 2007

what, flame spurts? lightning sand? R.O.U.S.es?

nvm, forgot, you haven't seen it.

I meant on the sudoku puzzle...I think it's called a naked pair

I meant on the sudoku puzzle...I think it's called a naked pair

many movies do have naked pairs...

naked pairs are your friend

s

lol

Forget not "My Cousin Vinny"

yes, that is in my top 10.

"Oh yeah, you blend"

did that have Michelle Phiffer in it?

"These two yoots." "Yoots?" "Yeah! Yoots!"

I'm thinking of Married to the Mob ... never mind :)

famous for your mud? how's your chinese food?

Joe Pesci & Marisa Tomei

Fred Gwynne's last movie, I think

I have a children's book he wrote. Very funny book of puns.

66 easies left to go. Think I'm calling it a night.

Ok, good night all!

night andy!

night Andy nice chatting with you!!!

go

done. got stuck after a bit and used auto g+r.