Nine Cells Of Fog: A Sudoku Dance

[@treester2163]

I believe the title is meant to be Boogie Woogie, but Woogie is backwards and combined with Boogie in reference to palindromes

[@HunterJE]

I suspect Simon or someone else figured this out between the solve recording and the upload, judging by the video title...

[@alexanderompi2730]

And if you solve it it says "Victory" -> Victory Boogie Woogie, painting by Mondriaan!

[@jaaptaal]

It is referring to this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Boogie_Woogie

[@chris5619]

It's electric!

[@thescrewfly]

And here I was trying to convince myself the W stood for Wonderland.

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

Apparently, the final slogan "Victory!" (when you solve the puzzle) hints toward the famous painting "Victory Boogie Woogie" from 1944, the very last painting from the Dutch painter Piet Mondriaan before he died in New York in 1944. It's basically a painting full of diagonals, and even the framework itself is diagonal! Which also explains why this puzzle full of diagonals is named after the painting 🙂

[@stangerrits6712]

It's an unfinished painting, trying to capture the vibrancy of New York and it's boogie woogie music that was popular at the time. But apart from the frame itself, I think all lines on the painting are horizontal and vertical.

[@TheTastefirst]

Another "color the whole grid and fill in the numbers at the very end" puzzle. I love it.

[@Leo-ct9pm]

I did it with letters, it was nice until my letters disappeared from the last box.

[@Kairamek]

@@Leo-ct9pm OH NO

[@57thorns]

@@Leo-ct9pm Yes, that was kind of annoying, should have switched to colour there, was a bit silly to delete a digit to see what the letters were.

[@JohnRandomness105]

@@Leo-ct9pm I just backtracked a few times to match the letters with the digits. I used letters because I really didn't care for a psychedelic, acid-trip grid.

[@Donizen1]

@@57thorns Same here. Letters were much better than colours until the end.

[@joelkagemyr7284]

Loved how box 9 is a magic square!!

[@gibsoand]

Nice spot!

[@IS-qp7rs]

I never thought id hear simon say the word ‘boob’ but here we are

[@AdamGa92]

That’s my man! :D

[@EllaABo]

9:52 for anyone looking for it

[@st3phgr1ce]

I love that I read this comment first then when it happened it was the first word…😂

[@IS-qp7rs]

@@st3phgr1ce 😂😂

[@pastramionrye247]

Simon: Let's think of a better word. Me: Poop!

[@gracedreifuerst]

I am proud to say that I finally did one of these sudokus. It took me 81:48 but I had so much fun with it. Genuinely an amazing puzzle.

[@gabrielbenamy5270]

The surprise 3 in the corner made a very enjoyable video even funnier. I laughed out loud in celebration. What a delight this video was!

[@RichSmith77]

While I'm all in favour of Simon amending his colour palette (maybe he could replace black while he's at it), his choice of a blue that almost exactly matches the colour of entered digits and pencilmarks is just such a Simon move, that I'm sure will have no future scanning repercussions. 😂

[@arekparsons882]

This puzzle being solved by colors is extremely aesthetically pleasing to me. Brilliant set, brilliant solve. Well done.

[@Mujaki]

Red 5, standing by. And with one well placed shot, the whole thing exploded!

[@Kairamek]

You're in the clear Simon. Let's blow this thing and go home.

[@Stratelier]

Great solve, Simon! That was one in a million!

[@esti369]

Is there anything more wholesome on the ‘net than Simon getting excited about a new colour?

[@acanimations1223]

I love colouring-in puzzles, I love fog of war puzzles, so there was no doubt about me loving this puzzle, and as always no doubt that I love a cracking the cryptic video! Looking forward to seeing more of this lovely new blue.

[@samyakshah2040]

This is the first time that I played a puzzle before the video was out on CTC!! It’s an absolutely beautiful puzzle!

[@virtuous-sloth]

I did this using letters but then, when the fog got cleared, the letters in box 9 disappeared. So instead of being able to directly read them off from the revealed digits in box 9 I had to look at letters looking into box 9 and find which cell was not being seen by whichever letter I was looking for. So Simon using colour made for an easier transcription. I really enjoyed this one. Easy enough to flow for me.

[@Stratelier]

Yeah, I ran into the same issue. I had been coloring the cells into groups of 3 (based on box 3 where I started), but I eventually needed to overlay a second color to differentiate between specific digits to get the actual solve.

[@levb258]

I did it in a strange way using letters from one corner of the grid and colours from the other - so in the end when the letters disappeared I still had colours.

[@subinmdr]

The whole time I was thinking I should've done letters because that would've been easier to scan than colours. So I guess there are pros and cons.

[@hinjo89]

I used letters and then when the box 9 overrode them I reverted one step, colored all the different letters and then filled in the 5. That way got the best of both worlds :D

[@virtuous-sloth]

@@hinjo89 Good idea!

[@Astral_Panda]

This is the first time I've finished a puzzle by myself and it was incredibly fun!

[@joshrobbins4853]

These are my favorite kind of puzzles. I love it when you can complete the puzzle and then just dump the numbers in. So fun

[@RoderickEtheria]

The end of this puzzle was really some sort of magic.

[@davidstorrs]

I see what you did there. :>

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 05:48 Let's Get Cracking: 07:36 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Bobbins: 1x (22:34) Three In the Corner: 1x (33:15) Wally: 1x (15:06) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Ah: 8x (14:17, 15:38, 19:40, 23:21, 28:48, 29:39, 29:42, 31:32) Lovely: 7x (14:40, 18:23, 18:23, 24:38, 25:53, 30:55, 33:39) Sorry: 6x (02:12, 12:51, 19:15, 19:45, 19:57, 27:03) By Sudoku: 5x (15:47, 16:15, 17:17, 17:28, 18:43) Cake!: 5x (05:14, 05:16, 05:26, 05:28, 05:34) Hang On: 4x (06:30, 10:06, 25:46, 25:46) Weird: 4x (09:02, 10:41, 28:25, 28:28) Beautiful: 3x (18:32, 33:56, 33:56) Obviously: 3x (07:21, 10:09, 16:55) Wow: 3x (17:46, 17:48, 20:36) Naked Single: 2x (23:35, 23:59) Incredible: 2x (01:49, 03:41) In Fact: 2x (10:41, 24:02) Chromatic: 2x (18:18, 23:35) That's Huge: 2x (24:02, 24:02) Good Grief: 1x (33:35) Nonsense: 1x (18:18) Clever: 1x (14:35) In the Spotlight: 1x (33:15) Stuck: 1x (07:14) Brilliant: 1x (27:18) Gorgeous: 1x (25:15) Whoopsie: 1x (30:00) Progress: 1x (28:20) Almost Interesting: 1x (25:42) What Does This Mean?: 1x (00:30) Most popular digit and colour this video: Five (14 mentions) Blue (50 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Even (3) - Odd (2) Black (21) - White (0) Row (13) - Column (5) FAQ: Q1: You missed something! A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn! Q2: Can you do this for another channel? A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!

[@g.i.r.l.]

Idk what simarkings means, but Simon saying boob is probably in their as well

[@emilywilliams3237]

Despite the video length, I didn't have time to try the puzzle before watching (because I really wanted to watch you solve it, Simon). As soon as I saw the grid and the start of the solve, I knew that you were going to have a good time. Sure enough, it seems that you did! I will definitely do this one myself soon. Thanks for this video!

[@wypmangames]

My favorite detail is box 9, despite the digits being given, is actually a magic square (every row, column and 3 cell diagonal sums to 15) 🎉 ❤

[@davidrattner9]

Fabulous with Simons choice of colors and his chromatic finished grid!!! Very enjoyable!!

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 71 minutes. This was an absolutely fun coloring puzzle. I really liked the way the lines interacted with each other. I got stuck on the ending for about 25 minutes. Then, I reread the rules and saw that no bending was capable for lines. What a bad brain I have! That was one of the most exciting finishes I have done and I really appreciate the use of the fog in this one. Great Puzzle!

[@Hakucho64]

I needed Simon's insight that the two lines in box 9 were separate palindromes, after which I was away.

[@aaronrhodes6770]

You can solve it without knowing that as well. I didn't even notice it could be figured out that easily and only found out they were in fact separate once I put the 5 in. There were some situations where it didn't matter if it was 1 or 2 palindromes, which is how I got by.

[@twicedapk3688]

This one is fun. It takes awhile to work out what color 5 is, but then it’s solved. Beautiful

[@turun_ambartanen]

10:17, immediately stared with letters as I saw the puzzle. Was kinda set back once I once I cleared the fog with the 5, because all the given digits overwrote my letters in that square. So I had to do sudoku again!

[@hectormendoza496]

13:36 using letters instead of colors and 24:43 using colors. Using colors makes it much harder to spot the differences. Very fun puzzle!

[@piarittersporn]

Absolutely beautiful puzzle. I love it to colour the whole grid and get all of the digits in one moment finally. Sometimes too much possibilities of colouring is very confusing, but in this puzzle it was manageable quickly.

[@brspies]

Love a good coloring puzzle, and this is one of the most enjoyable yet. Always moving around the board, bit by bit, falling into place. beautifully done.

[@praematura]

Figured the lines in the fog pretty fast, but then got hopelessly lost. Decided to just watch Simon's solve, but when he mentioned starting in box 3, I decided to try again, though I used letters instead of colors... and finished in 12:02 (conflict checker off), but add a few minutes more for needing help from Simon on where to start. 😅 Many thanks to Br1312te for a wonderful puzzle!

[@Kairamek]

35:15 for me. This one had the best closer I've ever seen. I'm looking forward to watching the video after work.

[@quothacreations]

not usually fond of coloring/lettering puzzles, but love-love-loved this one (and the reference to Mondrian--one of my favorite artists)

[@meredithnavin1358]

09:52 Good to know that no matter how grown up, dignified, educated and responsible you are, the 13yo boy will still raise his head.

[@brianarsuaga5008]

This was a VERY fun puzzle. Since I realized right away what was going to be under the fog, I actually solved the whole thing with colors before placing the first digit- and all the rest in quick double-click succession. I love coloring puzzles!

[@elizabethgrosvenor153]

I loved this! Took me a while, even after watching the video, including needing to restart at some point, but I hardly ever do the puzzles and I still enjoyed this one!

[@titusadduxas]

18:49 - I love puzzles where you can fill in all the letters before swapping them for numbers at the end.

[@sampathkumar-ej7xl]

Got to be one of the best colouring puzzles.

[@JustLookingHere]

Such a satisfying feeling when you color all the cells, get that one 5 digit everywhere, unlocking the grey and than the rest. Sadly took me longer than expected as i interpreted box 9 wrong at first only to then look again and figured thats the only thing that could have been wrong.

[@aliengeo]

Love a color-to-the-end puzzle!

[@JoeLindell]

That was really brilliant! 33:26 for me. Careful coloring is very satisfying.

[@g.i.r.l.]

No digits in and less than a minute left. I love it

[@kosumi68]

Very enjoyable puzzle! Especially satisfying to finish all the digits in under ten seconds. :-) Thanks!

[@eddieharwood7788]

That was great. I took 47 minutes but spent nearly 10 faffing around looking at the possibilities of length 3 bent lines inyo box 9. Then I reread the rules!!!!!!!! and it was easy.

[@Alex_Meadows]

I definitely second the comments about the Patreon hunt, which was great fun. And given that I'm not one of the community's resident geniuses, the fact that I sent in my entry today suggests that it's at least loitering in the same neighbourhood as "approachable"! The fog app is also my favourite of the bunch by some distance, and I'm currently banging my head against Qodec's monster of a final boss.

[@theashen]

what a fantastic puzzle! Love coloring

[@mattlock6841]

My favorite sudoku this year!!!!!!!!

[@roccov3614]

Extremely approachable and enjoyable puzzle.

[@oliknight2223]

Incredibly clever! I got all my early progress using a combination of colors and letters so I could conceptualize two "sets" of numbers at once.

[@niyazali7983]

I got a solve in 12:23. Magic square was a nice touch. Relatively easy, but definitely an enjoyable puzzle.

[@andreacarter9545]

What a beautiful puzzle! Well done Simon!😊

[@thiscat4426]

Got this one in 25. Always loved colouring puzzles :)

[@craftyraf]

Ending with a magic square, brilliant puzzle!

[@jeffreyrosas1784]

I used letters, which are far easier to scan, but when I put a given digit in box 9 I lost all the letters in that box and had to go back and color my letters. A great puzzle, great concept, and great solve.

[@pairot01]

Beautiful puzzle. Love the deep colouring ones!

[@Chris23168]

I'm rather glad you did this one given that I started in 3 different places last week with letters and colours and failed miserably each time. Merry Christmas.

[@andrewness]

Much prefer colouring puzzles to ones with lots of arithmetic 😂 I took a very different path to Simon, but solved without too much difficulty!

[@artyheartylife8588]

Fantastic! Love the reveal!

[@mikel7180]

Such a beautiful finish.

[@hzl1776]

I solved in 42:09! Had so much fun!!

[@hzl1776]

resolved in 33:52!

[@elium2]

R4C6 is actually already a naked single (in the color scheme) at 15:22, four minutes before Simon ultimately colors it, although I don't know how much difference it would've made.

[@SirBradiator]

19:32 for me, lovely puzzle. I find it easier to use letters rather than colours

[@Kirbyfan87827]

Finished in 13:26. This puzzle was delightful!

[@dty999]

16:35. Did it with letters, then cleared the fog which lost all my references! So I hit undo, replaced all the letters with colours, cleared the fog again, and finally filled in all the numbers.

[@matthiasney4871]

Beautiful puzzle indeed, and with so little explanations and rules needed. I think it would have been a nice last laugh on us to have some overload of different rules only to figure out the numbers in the foggy 3x3 box, like killer cells, blackcurrents, white dots, an x or v and some Dutch or German Whisper line interacting with each other.

[@GGTM70]

First one I solved on my own! Needed your guidance for the start but I got there eventually

[@levb258]

That was fun. The final solve was a perfect climactic ending.

[@johnallegood4469]

I lucked into finding the five quickly. I didn't focus on coloring one box and allowing it to spread across the grid, rather I focused on picked points on palindromes that "felt" like they might be restricted and coloring one color at a time. Eventually one happened to land on the five and filled in all the 5s in the grid and after finishing my coloring, I placed all the digits at once :) took me 19:06

[@tomgalli1188]

What fun!! Alphabet soup FTW. Although Simon's coloring sure looks prettier!

[@Coyotek4]

17:29 ... more fun with colors Nice puzzle!

[@lukasaurelius4462]

Instead of colors, I used letters, which made it easier for me to see what cells were finished and which could still take on other options.

I also used letters, for me it is much easier.

[@niyazali7983]

I did the same, but then had trouble with the magic square, cos my short term memory is awful... Had to get a word doc up...🤣

[@Kinada]

I colored in the whole grid before placing that digit. Couldn't resist.

[@iaincook5835]

16.30: "light green in the corner...light green in the spotlight, losing its religion".

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

Solved it in 25:24. :-) Very fun puzzle! For me, this was typically a puzzle where using letters was a great asset to a colorblind man, only slightly supported by some colors. And eventually, the letter were replaced by digits in a few seconds...

[@Michaelzehr]

That was really cool - a creative puzzle! I got most of the way through before I realizing the logic assumption I made, and then got most of the way again before I reread that lines don't bend, but at that point the puzzle was solved other than some transcribing. I started with colors but it made my eyes hurt, so I switched to letters. It wasn't easier, but at least I could tell the difference better.

[@n8style]

Loved this puzzle! Knew how full the bottom right had to be from the lack of information and where the five would be, very satisfying 32:33 time

[@Laz0rftw]

Even after writing letters into the grid Simon still somehows wants to solve this using colors. Remarkable 😂 Good solve :)

[@nimiugn]

9m22s for me. Happy coloring this one. Magical ending!

[@DamienJones-um7cr]

Was flying through using letters then found the final disambiguation with a mix of letters and numbers tricky for an overall solve time a mediocre 34 mins. Time to strap in and watch the professionals

[@fiona4450]

That was certainly fun to watch.

[@wossaaaat]

'Tenet' was a recent (specifically palindromic) answer on the NYT mini crossword, but I can't imagine Simon does that.

[@n_mckean]

Nice little fun one. The first time I found myself removing a digit to get the fog back to reference the ABCD... I used instead of colours.

[@n_mckean]

Simon, I appreciate that you do often show some concern for the colour-blind and the vision impaired without really knowing enough, but this puzzle was a prime candidate for using ABCDE.... rather than colours as it would have been a far more accessible solve.

[@JohnRandomness105]

I'm not sure whether I followed the intended path. Once the fog flashed out, I wondered if I was supposed to locate and place the 5 in block 9. I solved the puzzle with letters. Near the end, I got a triple including the given 5. I colored that to indicate that it was a triple. Once I resolved the triple in letters, I colored the 5 and the letter that it matched. Only when the grid was full with single-letter cells did I swap 5's letter with 5, whereupon the fog flashed out. I had to backtrack a few times to match the letters with the digits. 11:40 I suggest beginning with blocks 3 and 5, because they have the most and longest lines. (I'd also suggest letters, but...)

[@christopherneil8265]

Fun fact, “tenet” was used in one of the earliest palindromic square: SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS

[@herbicide]

28.19 for me! love you guys

[@markp7262]

17:59 finish. A fun, colorful little puzzle!

[@Chmo4414]

Very easy puzzle if you use letter notes. I tried colors at first and made several mistakes. After restarting with letters it only took 13 Min. Great puzzle!

[@ilyrm89]

I love the given digits are a magic square :)

[@shawnheidingsfelder8179]

I guessed what would happen under the fog, and it was nice to see I was correct. Cool puzzle.

[@przemekmajewski1]

needed 20 mins to solve this. writing in letters super fast as in a simple sudoku using the "big digit" tool was fastest for me. I later color marked the squars because the revealed stuff made what I wrote in invisible

[@jacobg1219]

I started with colouring the bottom middle square 😭 spent hours before colouring differently. Can any mathematicians prove that you can start by colouring any "suduku unique" 9 if that is true

[@scarletmanuka6170]

They don't even have to be (clearly) known-unique; the fact that a unique colouring exists implies that you can, in principle, start from any set of 9 cells that have all different colours in the final grid. The trick is to find starting cells that make the deductions humanly possible. Obviously, using cells that you can prove to be distinct from your existing colours is very helpful in that direction, so in practice you definitely want to build up your colours knowing them to be distinct, although you don't necessarily have to start with a sudoku-unique set. I didn't; I started with individual cells that I could see propagated to a few other places. After defining 7 letters I changed the definition of F slightly (to another pair that was still known distinct from the rest of A-G), and after defining 8 letters I went and changed the definition of E so that E and I could be in definite places in column 4 rather than an EI pair. But I certainly hadn't started with column 4. I was doing most of the definitions in rows 1-3 just based on what looked like it would be most helpful for each next letter.

[@jeffreyturvey5881]

'Boogie Goo, Double U' (it rhythms 😎)

[@barmetler]

My god, the final fill-in was so satisfying.

[@EelcoWind]

Simon was solve 409 and I was 1409, so I expect the counter to rise quickly :D Nice and easy puzzle, colouring puzzles are relaxing ^^

[@victorfinberg8595]

i actually beat simon's time today, although i don't have to talk, and it was my second solve. however, the trick is to START colouring in box 3, because you can fill the whole box, usefully, with distinct colours. oh, and to use three LETTERS, because there aren't enough colours to do it properly

[@PhilBoswell]

It is possible that Simon realises at some point that the second half of the name is "Woogie" backwards, so the name could be pronounced "Boogie Woogie" with reasonable accuracy, but I'm still at the start of the video so I don't know yet ;-)

[@spifariffic]

Light green in the corner, light green in the spotlight losing its religion Trying to keep up with blue I think I thought I saw blue cry Green was just a three Just a three Just a three

[@jurgnobs1308]

the name is definitely Boogie-Woogie with the woogie turned around haha

[@LorisLaboratory]

This was delightful! Thank you! :D

[@Orenotter]

In this poem all lovely and lilty 'Bout this puzzle all colored and quilty My one crime I confess Near the end I did guess And so now I feel just a bit guilty. True story.

[@pekopekojumanji]

Looking forward for a great time 😊