Giti's Puzzle Corner

Hi, and welcome to the inaugural issue of Giti's puzzle corner. I'm Giti, who you may know from the comic strip Slapdash, by "Jerik", if you read Slapdash, which you probably don't, especially since it's about a month behind schedule. You may think that the reason the comic strip is so behind schedule is because Jerik's been spending his time putting this page together instead, but in reality that's not true. Jerik has had most of the material for this page finished for a long time, and just threw the page together over a day or two. The reason the comic strip is so far behind schedule is because Jerik is a lazy, lazy bum. You can tell he hasn't been spending a lot of time on this page because I don't even get a nifty title graphic. I mean, come on. "Giti's Puzzle Corner" in big text. That's impressive. He could have at least written it out in a nice-looking font in Photoshop, and made a reasonably attractive graphic out of it, which would have taken him, what, all of two minutes? But no, he's too lazy even for that.

Anyway, he claims he's going to get all caught up with the comic strip in the next week or so. He'd better. I know where he lives. And I'd better have a nice title graphic by next time, too.

Well, at any rate, Giti's Puzzle Corner will be a biweekly feature at Slapdash in which I, Giti, will present various puzzles for you, the readers, to try to solve. Sorry we don't have any nifty Java applets or anything; you're going to have to figure out these puzzles the old-fashioned way, with pencil and paper. (Either copy them down or just print them out; we've tried to make the pages nice and printer-friendly so that should work out - that's why the instructions are on separate pages.) Answers will be given in two weeks, in the next installment.

In this issue:

• Crossword - We'll try to have at least one crossword in every installment. Yes, this is your average, everyday crossword puzzle. Well, sort of. Actually, there's a bit of a trick to this one, but I'll let you figure that out on your own.
• Cryptic Crossword - We'll try to have at least one of these in every installment, too, just because I really like them. If you're not sure what a cryptic crossword is, I have an instruction page that explains it.
• Logorinths - These may or may not become a somewhat regular feature, depending on how much everyone likes them. Try them out, and see what you think.
• Triplets - And now for something not verbally related. This is just spatial reasoning here, folks. See if you can divide each of these shapes into three identical pieces.
• Dashers - Miscellaneous little puzzles I've just lumped together for the heck of it. As to why they're called "dashers", no particular reason, except that they're supposed to be relatively quick to do, and - oh, the heck with it, it's a stupid name, but it's the best I could come up with. Anyway, there are only three dasher puzzles in this installment, but future installments may have more. Or not. We'll just have to wait and see.

All the puzzles in this issue were created by "Jerik", but I'll gladly take submissions from readers too! If we use your puzzle, we'll be sure to give you credit, and include a link to your page! E-mail me with your submissions! (Please, nothing involving huge graphic files; I'm trying to take up as little bandwidth here as possible. If your submission does include graphics, try to get the file sizes as small as you can.)

Coming in the Next Installment (if all goes well, which, knowing Jerik, it probably won't):

• Connect The Dots - You know those things you probably did as a kid where you had to connect numbered dots in order and some kind of picture would show up? Well, this is absolutely nothing like that.
• Sqram - Program a planetary rover to avoid obstacles and reach a goal! Of course, it seems to be a very illogically designed planetary rover, but if it were easy, it wouldn't be much of a puzzle, would it?

And in the Installment After That:

• Conspiracy - Learn a new thinking person's solitaire card game, and some puzzles to go with it!
• The Ruins of Vibut - Reconstruct the buildings of an ancient civilization! Well, not really, but that's the idea behind the puzzle.

And, of course, new crosswords, cryptic crosswords, and "dashers" in every issue! (That's the plan, anyway.)

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