Once Every Four Years Comes Such A Puzzle...

[@bladewraith1580]

Today is my wife and I's second anniversary. Its been a fantastic 8 years

[@longwaytotipperary]

@bladerwraith1580. Congratulations!

[@jamiepianist]

8 or 32 years 😂

[@derekjc777]

Second quadanniversary surely? The day may be less frequent but the years go by as the earth circumnavigates the sun regardless.

[@LornaM2304]

Happy leap day everyone, I took the opportunity to propose to my boyfriend! (he said yes 😅) 🎉🎉🎉

[@margaretsinclair6697]

Congratulations! ❤❤❤

[@suewilliams7091]

congratulations to you both 🎉❤

[@HunterJE]

Felicitations!

[@r.b.4009]

Congratulations, but now he has a get out of jail free card for three years in a row to forget your engagement date 😂

[@cloudbringer104]

Congratulations ❤❤🎉

[@christopheradams7930]

thank you very much for solving this puzzle, and glad you liked it! definitely not the easiest to get it work with 29 clues only, but it's the sort of elegant thing that i enjoy seeing in puzzles here, and that i try to include in my puzzles when possible. and yeah, 2 out of 9 was an underestimate on difficulty, probably because i thought the "outrageous" step at 38:15 was easier to see than it might actually be (at least, it was easy for me to see, but that's from spending so much time working on this to the point that it was hard to judge difficulty because the logic was so familiar to me, which is a feeling i'm sure most sudoku setters can relate to). anyhow, again, thank you very much for solving this, and for the birthday wishes!

[@maximix5447]

I think that you dont need the "outrageous" step tho. You can just see that the top right 2 cells are a 3/blue double, by sudoku. Which is also useful because you know that the green/white cell has to be green, which gives you a lot of information. Great puzzle btw

[@ngonStrafe]

I'm having a terribly long and stressful week at work, and genuinely want to thank you for this one - just the right amount of challenge, and a delightful sprint to the end once the last stage of the solve begins. Exactly the kind of win I needed to feel right now. Indebted.

[@sampathkumar-ej7xl]

Thanks for a very nice enjoyable puzzle. These star ratings are relative and I agree with Simon that it is not a 2 star certainly higher level of difficulty.

[@_aullik]

I don't think it wasn't too hard. It just took a bit longer. I got the one myself eventually but it took me a couple steps more. Steps like counting the pink diagonal that Simon skipped completely.

[@CrankyOtter]

I think it was “2 with math”. *Actually using the diagonal clues* more frequently keeps it from being unmanageable. I struggle with 3 level puzzles. I found this one challenging, but not a struggle, aka right in my sweet spot. I found it very clever & enjoyable; thanks for taking the trouble to stay on theme.

[@youresogolden_]

Simon calling us his favourite people when he shares the secret always makes my day! 🙏🏻 With his explanation, I found the puzzle seemed relatively easy to start but I do believe that on my own, it would have taken me a bit longer to figure out (as a newbie to variant sudokus)

[@iamyukkithesnowman9178]

That is one smart 8 year old!

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

Happy leap day everyone! After marrying my wife on August 29, 2007, it suddenly occurred to us that our 12.5-year anniversary would take place on a leap day. But we were lucky to discover that February 29, 2020 was actually a real existing day on the calendar. :-) After having a joyful celebration on that leap day, it turned out afterwards that this was actually the last day just before the Covid pandemic (in which we also discovered CtC, by the way) on which we saw all our friends and family together. Even on today's first post-covid leap day, that remains a special memory. Many thanks for a beautiful solve and another joyful video!

[@frankjiang1857]

Finished in 31:35. Fun puzzle which doesn't require you to take a leap of faith to solve. Fun puzzle!

[@MattYDdraig]

44:51 Beautifully elegant, especially if you don't completely forget about the diagonal totals in the bottom left for nearly 20 minutes 🤭 Great setting arctan!

[@psiphiorg]

This puzzle has me leaping for joy! The real trick was figuring out what order to approach each of the 29 cage/lines in. My coloring scheme was different from Simon's, using red for 29 cells and green for everything else. That helped me find a few things more quickly than Simon did, like where the 29 cells in column 1 had to go. My time today was 36:02, solver number 213.

[@fruit3193]

The word "exquisite" comes to mind when describing this puzzle. The things I found within it felt like magic.

[@longwaytotipperary]

Happy birthday arctan! ❤ your puzzle! Simon is very entertaining, as usual! Congrats to Lorna!!

[@HunterJE]

Looked it up-last leap day was indeed just before the schedule went double-daily for lockdown, and there was not a Simon video that day, however there were two Mark videos posted that day (a leap day themed variant sandwich sudoku and a Times crossword)

[@Melledw]

What a puzzel! Well done to arctan and to you for solving it!!

[@SirBradiator]

Islands of insight would be great for a live stream, just don't expect to complete it, there are over 10,000 puzzles

[@NinjarioPicmin]

I've been absolutely loving Islands of Insight and have been looking forward to it for months before it came out. And while playing i'm definitely thinking a lot about how (at least certain parts of it) would be incredible for a stream from you! Yes it definitely also involves moving in a 3D world, but when it comes to the puzzles themselves they are most of the time in an interface where you won't trigger any motion sickness. I hope you can at least try if it works 🙏

[@ericslingerland5472]

Requested a stream of it on yesturday's video, but id still recommend they find someone more familiar with games to run the controls, i feel getting from puzzle to puzzle might be overwhelming

[@dicebar_]

I like how puzzles like this have multiple interesting solution paths. Like, before Simon untangled the 2s and 9s, if you try to maximize the counting cells on the red diagonal (26) you can see that you need at least one more counting cell from the two remaining unresolved cells. Yet, if you make R3C6 non-counting, you end up forcing the other cell to be non-counting as well, breaking the diagonal. It was a really fun solve 🙂

[@NinjarioPicmin]

I've been absolutely loving Islands of Insight and have been looking forward to it for months before it came out. And while playing i'm definitely thinking a lot about how (at least certain parts of it) would be incredible for a stream from you! Yes it definitely also involves moving in a 3D world, but when it comes to the puzzles themselves they are most of the time in an interface where you won't trigger any motion sickness. I hope you can at least try if it works 🙏

[@kayleawilson]

My husband and I celebrated leap day this year by reminiscing about where we both were last leap year, before we got together. So lovely to know just in 4 years time, so much can get better

[@Quantris]

Very neat! I thought it was very cool how many of the digits ended up getting produced based on having just enough to make 29

[@hewholimpsmartin]

This puzzle is amazing! Now my favorite of your videos Was happy to join your Patreon, today 😅 Always a pleasure 😁

[@jeffreyanderson6381]

You're a genius. I watched your video to the end. I have to admit , you're over my head. This is the first video of yours that I have watched. Listening to your video as I am typing. I must be watching a new video. I was watching " Cracking The Cryptic. The video is four years old. I have been trying/solving Sudoku puzzles. I am an addicted to the game. With all of those years playing. I never tried it your way. I have an I-Pad. Wahlah. It is the same video . I have to tell you that I am 69. No excuses. At any rate I was really trying hard to follow you. Thanks for all of your effort. Jf Anderson

[@LiquorStoreJon]

Cool Puzzle! Happy Leap Day, 2024!

[@Coyotek4]

43:26 (over two sessions) ... after my break, I sheepishly saw a direct conflict that I overlooked for what felt like 4 years Nice puzzle!

[@jaspersneyers4559]

I have finished the game “islands of insights” in a week in my holiday. This was my most fun holiday ever i am confident to say that streaming the game is a amazingly good idea and for the motion sickness you can adjust the settings for motion related stuff and for the rest it is just an amazing game and you shoukd definitely try it out. But for now i am gonna watch the vid!

[@emilywilliams3237]

It is interesting to me that the year 2000 was a Leap Year, though 1900 was not (nor will 2100 be). So people born on February 29 in 1996, for example, have indeed celebrated 8 birthdays as of this year. But if they had been born February 29 1896, they would have only celebrated 7 birthdays by 29 Feb 1924. The Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Pirates of Penzance famously bases its clever plot twists on the Leap Year idea (though does not worry about the turns-of-centuries that are not divisible by 400). This was a lovely puzzle and of course an interesting solve, Simon. Thanks for the fun! (And happy birthday arctan!)

[@angec9908]

I love watching a sudoku video and how resentful Simon gets by being forced to do sudoku.

[@arandolph846]

Great puzzle, the 568 really got me. Do you think you could ask Sven if in the settings he could create a toggleable sort; so right now it autosorts numerically but I want to be able to set it where what I type in the box first appears first etc. I think that could be helpful and an easy thing to implement

[@muskyoxes]

In the next cryptic book, i'll be looking for "funny funny things" in the glossary

[@andrewfunk2983]

Watching your videos is the most wholesome part of my life and it's cool you get genuinely excited about sudoku and you got me into it. It helps me sleep

[@leeannadimoulas5163]

Gorgeous solve! Thank you

[@Matthew-wz8ng]

Yes Simon 1st leap day video in recorded every day as the last was just before COVID-19 in 2020. March 2020 was the start of the pandemic.

[@melinaalba63]

Sometimes your videos are too much for my brain and I stop watching for a while. Then I come back a few weeks later and I'm having so much fun again. This video was a joy honestly!😄

[@wanderlustwarrior]

37:06 for me. That got very colorful at the end!

[@AngelWedge]

40:00 and yelling advice at the screen :p If r3c6 is green, it pushes green in row 1 into r1c9, which pushes blue into r1c8. So along the red line, r7c2 + r6c3 + 4 + 4 + 3 = 29. Which kind of gives you 2 cells summing to 18.

[@chocolateboy300]

I got 61 minutes. This puzzle really flowed well for me. I took my time to make sure the logic worked, but it was satisfying. Nice puzzle!

[@axlefire3754]

This is the first one of these I was able to try and complete before watching the video.

[@man360ism]

sat here screaming as he did sudoku with the blues and greens everywhere except box 7

[@alexandros93]

The fact that everyone see the sodoku and say i cant see anything. But this guy say that a 9 or 3 is amazing.😂😂😂

[@marleenedith7682]

What a lovely puzzle on my sixth birthday 🥰

[@Hakucho64]

Solved without Simon's help, although I did retrospectively watch the first part of his solve to make sure I was on the right track. Fun puzzle!

[@mrsawiggins]

My husband didn't propose on Feb 29th... He proposed on April 1st. Took him a while to convince me he was serious.🤣

[@_P2M_]

Hi, Simon. There's this game called I Wanna Lickpick and i really think it'd be right up your alley. It involves heavy use of logic and becomes more and more complex as it goes on. I highly recommend it. It's completely free as well.

[@rubenssiomusic]

Hello from Armenia!

[@camelliascholl6564]

happy 8th birthday to arctan and happy 17th birthday to my dad!

[@srwapo]

Apparently, that took me 365:19 to finish (guess the timer didn't stop when I turned off the screen, lol). I worked on it yesterday, got the cages quickly, was stuck on the diagonals. Decided to watch the video, got to the 29 minute mark, and realized I didn't think about the 29 above r1c2 at all. Went back to my attempt, put in those digits, and was able to finish from there without too much trouble.

[@Hertog_von_Berkshire]

Nice one arctan.

[@Raven-Creations]

This was very nice. The construction was excellent, especially considering it's themed. The key is to attack each of the 29 clues in the right order, and not forgetting sudoku. The lower cage forces the upper cage, then sudoku forces the upper negative diagonal, etc. I wish you'd be more diligent tidying up your pencil-marks. For instance, when you got the 1 in R1, exclaiming "this is huge", it was much more than you got from it. The other cells were 239, but there's a 3 in box 2, so green had to be in R1C6 and R3C9. You waste so much time because of this, I don't understand why you refuse to learn.

[@Lumeth]

First time faster than Simon for me - ! :-) Even when subtracting intro and everything, though I guess him explaining and talking might have given me a slight edge timewise... ;-) Thanks for all the teaching, you supreme Sudoku-Sensei, Simon!

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 07:03 Let's Get Cracking: 08:22 Simon's time: 40m52s Puzzle Solved: 49:14 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! The Secret: 4x (13:09, 13:09, 13:19, 13:19) Bobbins: 3x (19:54, 24:07, 34:21) Three In the Corner: 3x (20:14, 44:50, 44:54) Knowledge Bomb: 1x (03:32) Diddly Squat: 1x (15:27) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Sorry: 7x (04:42, 04:50, 05:02, 05:23, 09:59, 19:54, 36:12) By Sudoku: 6x (17:16, 19:30, 28:40, 30:58, 43:15, 43:49) Hang On: 6x (18:36, 30:28, 30:28, 30:28, 38:50, 48:14) Pencil Mark/mark: 6x (25:17, 30:24, 30:32, 32:33, 32:37, 46:32) Beautiful: 5x (30:01, 42:15, 44:27, 44:27, 49:13) Ah: 5x (30:13, 30:28, 38:31, 41:19, 42:05) Cake!: 5x (04:37, 05:09, 05:29, 05:43, 05:52) In Fact: 4x (00:51, 02:03, 24:26, 46:30) Bother: 3x (24:21, 25:47, 36:29) Clever: 3x (42:05, 47:27, 47:30) Shouting: 3x (04:32, 05:23, 06:28) What Does This Mean?: 3x (12:52, 14:20, 36:08) Triangular Number: 3x (09:10, 10:40) Goodness: 2x (46:18, 46:49) Lovely: 2x (00:45, 01:35) Brilliant: 2x (49:13, 49:15) Hypothecate: 2x (23:55, 26:01) Take a Bow: 2x (49:15) Approachable: 2x (01:27, 01:29) Good Grief: 1x (47:27) What a Puzzle: 1x (49:32) The Answer is: 1x (32:25) Naughty: 1x (35:10) In the Spotlight: 1x (44:57) Horrible Feeling: 1x (19:35) Extraordinary: 1x (04:11) Surely: 1x (16:59) Think Harder: 1x (46:52) Phone is Buzzing: 1x (43:31) Wow: 1x (49:15) That's Huge: 1x (11:06) Weird: 1x (17:46) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Twenty Nine (24 mentions) One (90 mentions) Blue (23 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Even (5) - Odd (2) Column (10) - Row (9) 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!

[@CarlosFreitas99]

That 1 in the first row was indeed outrageous

[@UmasPapa]

Hi there, excellent logic! You could try the word bounded instead of minimum'd. I do like the sound of it, but it is a dubious contraction. :-)

[@Jh-zx9sm]

As always has been, I enjoy the daily videos (especially when they're longer) as I work nights, enjoy listening to the streams while working, even if i have to rush to work from a home game at anfield XD

[@luizgrocco]

I love how the word "minimizing" became "minimuming" in this video 🤣

[@TopazMagicGirl]

Tried this for myself for a few hours, and I’ve finally gotten so stuck, I came back here for the answer~ 😅

[@dolf370]

Yepp, an extremely approachable and easy puzzle. Took me 175:41. That said, I really enjoyed it and am a little bit proud that I managed to solve it, but don't really agree that it's only 2 out of 9 for difficulty.

[@thebitterfig9903]

I’d say the difficulty is at least 2.9 out of 5.

[@angec9908]

I love being one of your favorite people ❤

[@josephbentley1300]

35:43 for me, thanks for the puzzle

[@LednacekZ]

22:50 for me. not really clean solve, but the time is ok.

[@JBobjork]

Someone on the radio said that if you have your wedding on the 29th you only forget your wedding day every fourth year.

[@titusadduxas]

1:54:17 - Not the quickest but very enjoyable nonetheless.

[@jaymuse127]

Naughty brain creating great words: minimalled

[@hi_fox]

Doing these puzzles too often actually makes me annoyed because I have started spotting things before Simon does and I don't like it! Stressing waiting for him to notice the same thing.

[@HunterJE]

Technically once every four years but not every hundred years unless it's every four hundred years...

[@phuybrechts6875]

When you put 1 in row 1 , i Tough you got Happy for 3 in the corner ( because of 3 in box 2 already) , but it was to soon 😂

[@piarittersporn]

Very extraordinary puzzle. I really enjoyed it very much.

[@PathOfShrines]

Very nice, relatively approachable. 30:35

[@JoelJoel321]

The difficulty was 9/2 for me.

[@grahamania]

00:36:35 for me. Fantastic puzzle. I am always amazed that setters can create such great puzzles WITH a theme! Kind comment.

[@anaayoung9142]

Great day to a great puzzle!

[@JalebJay]

37:52 Happy earth's rotation and revolution don't match up day.

[@AndreAy1975]

Solved it with help from the video.

[@Squishy3757]

You gave up on 29 coloring before finishing box 7 which would have given you info in box 4 among other things.

[@9MRSG]

Beautiful logic

[@xHansax]

"How can you claim this is two out of nine, no its not!" Simon didn't get it ;)

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

Maybe it is nine out of two, at least for me... ;-)

[@xerodeus2337]

I'm noticing I really love killer cages and fog so far.

[@nezarnassif2967]

love it love it love it

[@slurpleslixie]

I know you love colouring but I feel the Green/Blue colouring for 2/9s was never going to be helpful - they are both 0 according to every rule in the grid so resolving them beyond "they are either 2 or 9" isn't going to be helpful until you get to the end. While having them coloured grey for "value 0" was actually useful to the puzzle logic

[@user-kt9vr1wj6y]

37:47 for me nice puzzle

[@Landis963]

85:29 for me - definitely not an easy one!

[@houligan5254]

I proposed to my now wife on April Fools, not realizing it was the 1st. Her mom didn't believe it until the next day.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

14:55 for me. Nice puzzle!

[@wibblywobblyidiotvision]

Oh, man, that took me ages, but was a very satisfying solve. Yay!

[@DaniloPiazzalunga]

On leap days, the secret Is 34.

[@monkerud2108]

does that mean we have to throw one away every 400 years?

[@Timlagor]

9/2 our of 5

[@CrankyOtter]

Non-spoiler hint: My first take I tried to maximize 9s. Remember 9s AND 2s are equally 0 in sums, so maximize ZEROS, not 9s or 2s specifically.

[@CrankyOtter]

Please, Simon, *finish the blue green in box 7*, which makes finding 2/9 on diagonals, or not, easier.

[@CrankyOtter]

I goofed r6c9 and all the rest of the puzzle ALMOST solved but it was hard to find my error because 2/3 were right & the rest were mostly 568s but I couldn’t get them shuffled properly & always wound up with one impossible square 😭 Managed to unwind it but clocked in at 70min solve. I’d say this is more of a 2 than the most recent 2 was, but wouldn’t argue a 3/5 either. My strategy was to see how to maximize zero values on lines & in boxes, do the min/max options, & breaking in actually went like Simon’s did. I usually logic opposite him & get stuck, but not today!, which is why I vote for 2 - had Simon colored the 2/9s in box 7, 8 think it would have been slightly smoother.

[@Millenassang]

Proposing or asking someone on the 29th of february is genius, you don t risk forgetting birthdays or milestones with your guy/girl since it s such a peculiar day of the year

[@_-_-Sipita-_-_]

21:26 for me.

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

41:57 for me.

[@theredstoneengineer6934]

28:47 for me

[@robertcousins2274]

35:40 for me. No 2 or 9 in my time :(

[@thescrewfly]

So... the difficulty was very much 2.9?

[@peethoagland8907]

Did Simon genuinely not understand the 2/9 difficulty joke as related to this puzzle?

[@tessabrisac7423]

😂

[@PeterZaitcev]

My time is 25:24. Ez.

[@MWSin1]

Happy Time Light Savings Day, everyone.

[@longwaytotipperary]

Ours doesn’t start till March 10.

[@MWSin1]

@@longwaytotipperary No, that's daylight savings time. Time light savings day (Feb 29) is completely different. And also fake.

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@MWSin1 ahhhh…

[@awilliams1701]

are birthdays on non leap days feb 28 or march 1 on other years?

[@longwaytotipperary]

My guess as it would be March 1st - since it’s the day after February 28.

[@Ennar]

Simon removing coloring that served its purpose and is no longer useful? Leap year, indeed.

[@Pritchie45]

45 minutes

[@will1]

The title is misspelled it should be every not ever

[@SubscribeRightNow300]

Thanks for the shoutout!