Puzzle Description:

My cousins had planned and saved for years to take their two kids to Disneyland. As they got off the plane one of the children complained of an itch.. turned out to be measles and they were quarantined for a week in a hotel room with two **VERY** unhappy, itchy kids.

#1: Valerie Mates (valerie) on May 13, 2024

I am stuck at 75% and could use a hint.

N - That sounds like a horrible vacation! Much sympathy!!

Found to be solvable with moderate lookahead by dbouldin.

I didn't track my solve :( Lemme see what I can find...

El dots C25-30R27 (looking at R25) helps some, but also look at R14. Using color logic (and starting on the right side), ask where the black 2 can start, then where the red 1, then the red 2, etc...as you go, you'll see that there's only one spot for the leftmost 2 to go. There really is just a lot of color logic in here, but with some EL, 2-way and a smile mixed in. Let me know your percentage if you get stuck again :)

I think you win. Much sympathy to your cousins.

I got to 95% just with some careful color logic (EL was not necessary for R27, for example). The rows with only black or only reds between the sides are helpful guides for getting that far.

R16-17: If either of these puts black into C16, the other will put black into C14. Therefore R18-19 and R22-23 in C14 can be marked white. L&CL.

Summing: We need 4 total blacks in R22-23 C15-16 and C22-23, and the 7 in R22 only accounts for 2 of these. Therefore we will need both 1s from R23 in these columns, and the black in R23C26 must be part of the last 2. L&CL.

Smile logic finishes the black.

C10: Whether the red 2 goes into R14-15 or R18-19, it will place red into C11, so R22C11 must be white. LL.

R15: If the red 2 is placed in C18-19, R14 is invalid.

LL to finish.

omg, that's not fun at all :(

Poor family!

Oh my.

Nice puzzle! I am puzzled by the story, though- measles vaccine became available in 1963 and measles usually doesn't itch much. I am old enough that my sister had it, and it was horrible for her, but I never saw a case in 30 years of being a doctor. Are they sure it wasn't chicken pox? Chicken pox is itchy. They still would have had to stay in the room. Measles had essentially been eliminated from the US. There was an outbreak of measles in Disneyland in 2014 brought in from outside the country, but it primarily affected people who were unvaccinated.

According to the interwebs, measles *can* include an itchy rash.

And we can thank the anti-vaxxers for the resurgence of measles. Which is awful for the children who are too young or immunocompromised, and can no longer rely on herd immunity to stay infectious-disease free.

Goto next topic

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