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#1: bugaboo (bugaboo) on Jan 17, 2011

the only thing i can guess is that this is a rodeo clown and what looks like a roll of toilet paper is the barrel
the bull is on the left and all we can see is a part of his head which is down
red eye
horns pointing forward toward the clown who is hiding behind the barrel
is that close to what you were going for?
nice smile logic at the bottom

Right on Bugaboo.

clown passed out up against a trash can... picnic table on the side where he lost his nose

Smile logic doesn't quite work in this case as you still will have unresolved cells in row 10 that you have to deal with. You would actually be applying symmetry at this point to finish.

Look at row 19 and how this will effect row 10. In most cases, it will cause R10C11 and R10C12 to be dots. But the 4 clue can also be in R19C8-R19C11 or R19C12-R19C15 which does not cause both R10C11 and R10C12 to be dots. We need to examine these possibilities.

If the 4 clue is in R19C8-R19C11, then the 2 2 clues in row 18 will have to go in R18C12-R18C13 and R18C15-R18C16. In this case, this forces R10C11, R10C12, and R10C16 to all be dots which makes row 10 invalid. So R19C8 is a dot. The same logic will apply if the 4 clue is on the other side, so R19C15 is also a dot. The rest solves with line logic.

Found to be logically solvable by Gator.

Clown works in front of a computer at a Customer Service Center.
Thanks Brian!

isn't that more then 2 steps, Gator?

Tom - yeah, I think you are right now that I look at it again. I was working under the logical constraint that each column only needed one more cell filled in to make it complete. So I was not taking into account the resulting dots in my look-aheads.

So what's your opinion given the logical constraint in this case? Still looking 3 moves ahead?

I'll mark this one as "much lookahead required" when Jan gets around to implementing that classification.

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Gator... i believe anything that can be proved logical is okay with me... number of thoughts in the future not withstanding... this is a puzzle world...and thanks for considering my ideas :)

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Or both!

maybe perspective ....the bull is coming from behind ...clown may want to go back to the circus soon :P

One might call it guessing, but I solved it by my own logic. The clue was the 4 in row 19. Gator was right that it's the key, but I disagree with the method.

Logically solving up to that point, you have eight possible squares for it in R19C8-15. If you place in C8-11, then R18C12, R18C13, R18C15, and R18C16 are forced to be true. This results in C14 not being solvable as both rows are already completed and dots are forced into those two squares, leaving nothing for the remaining 1 in the column. Same thing going the other way with C9 being unsolvable. Once the appropriate dots are placed in R19, this gives us two squares of the 4 in R19C10-11. That completes the columns, the two pixels fill in at R10C7 and R10C16, and R18 can be started which completes two more columns, forcing the 4 into place and solving R18 to finish.

Therefore I consider it logically solvable.

I like your method better. :)

Now that you have pointed that out, I can see a little different way to think about this one. If in C8-11, this forces R18C13-R18C15 to be black (2 move look-ahead) making row 18 invalid.

Yes Gator, both views of the area are accurate; your view looks at the columns further to find three in a row have to be true.

I also just reread your earlier comment. Now I understand it better, but I still think looking at the immediately neighbouring row is easiest. =)

Regardless, this has been a great puzzle to analyze. :)

I'm so glad you've enjoyed it.

this is such a funny puzzle. Luckily Bugaboo explained it because I couldn't figure it out. She's always good at that. Tom's description is hilarious. Jota's comment is probably more true than we realize. Great puzzle and great comments.

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