Join us for a Puzzle Palooza of pontificating pedagogues providing pedant & poignant presentations on a plethora of puzzles! We’ll be at No Name Bar on Wednesday, April 22nd at 7:30pm listening to:
Talk #1: “Word Building: The Quizzical Quest to Construct a Crossword” By Analise Zocher
Learn how fantastical artificers called cruciverbalists construct the linguistic labyrinths we know as crossword puzzles. See what skill proficiencies you need to crack (or craft) a puzzle yourself.
Analise Zocher is a lifelong word nerd who learned how to solve crosswords from her mom. She took up constructing crosswords as a pandemic hobby and had a puzzle published in 2021.
Talk #2: “Going to Pieces? Get it Together!! (The Innies and Outies of Speed Puzzling)” By Jennifer Anderson, Connie Dretske, Michelle Monerson, & Liz Russell
We will talk about the history of speed puzzling, how the four of us got together, some tips and things we’ve learned, and why this is the best hobby ever!!
“Get It Together” is a competitive speed puzzling team out of Winona made up of Jennifer Anderson, Connie Dretske, Michelle Monerson, and Liz Russell. Our “Puzzle Coven” has been together since August 2024, we meet monthly (or more) to practice and, in the words of true Minnesotans – “We’re not that bad!!”
Talk #3 – “That’s Three in the Corner! An Introduction to the Wonderful World of Variant Sudoku” By Cody Lamarche
Have you ever been in the middle of solving a vanilla-flavored sudoku-puzzle and thought, “I wonder what could make this more interesting?” If you have, then prepare to have your mind blown! In this talk, we’ll explore the wacky and wonderful world of variant sudoku, at the intersection of traditional sudoku, arithmetic, chess, and number theory – no prior experience required! Along the way we’ll laugh, sing, perhaps shed a tear for the sheer beauty of pure logic that exists in the universe, and maybe, just maybe, even reveal the very secret of sudoku itself.
Cody Lamarche is an astrophysicist and faculty member at Winona State University. (You may remember his Nerd Nite talk on infrared astronomy two years ago, where he wore a trash bag – for science!) In his spare time, Cody enjoys playing the piano, growing orchids, playing pub trivia, and solving variant-sudoku puzzles.