Issue 17 
Season 7. January 5,2006
16-17. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year (8+6)
Solve six puzzles to discover the values of letters forming festive greetings. Within each greeting the same letter corresponds to the same digit and the different letters correspond to different digits. Common letters may have a different value in each greeting. “Merry Christmas” uses digits 0 to 9, and “Happy New Year” uses digits 1 to 8. Each puzzle reveals three of these 18 letters. Digits in grey cells form clues for adjacent puzzles. Each single puzzle may not have a unique solution. Solve them all to complete the main puzzle. Answer key: write down the digits representing each greeting.
a. Distances varia
Place in circles the numbers from 1 to 19. Two-digit numbers write in two horizontally touching circles. Distance between 1 and 2 must be less
then distance between 2 and 3, which must be less then distance between 3 and 4 and so on. For single-digit numbers use the centers of their
circles, for two-digit numbers use the touching point of their circles.
d. Battleships varia
Locate the position of the 10-ship fl eet (one 5-cells long ship, two 4-cells long, three 3-cells long and four 2-cells long ships) in the grid.
The ships do not touch each other, not even diagonally. Numbers outside the grid show the number of cells occupied by the ships in
corresponding rows and columns. Cell with waves does not contain any ship segments.
b. Kropki
Fill the table with digits from 1 to 9, so that each digit appears in every row and column exactly once. If absolute difference between two digits
in neighbouring cells equals 1 then they are separated by white dot. If digit in a cell is half the value of a neighbouring cell then they are
separated by black dot. The dot between “1” and “2” can be either of these colours.
e. Cave varia
Divide the grid into two parts (caves) by cutting along the gridlines. Digits indicate how many cells of that cave are visible horizontally and
vertically from the given number’s cell (which is NOT included).
c. Snake
Place in the grid a snake 39-cells long, not touching itself, even diagonally. Head and tail of the snake are marked by numbers 1 and 39.
Numbers outside the grid show the number of cells occupied by the snake in corresponding rows and columns. Snake cannot pass through
the black cell.
f. Sudoku
Fill the grid so that each row, column and outlined 3x3 area contains each digit between 1 and 9 exactly once.
