The Official 2016 Puzzle of the Year Thread

[peter365]

Hi everyone

Running with our venerated Admin's idea in the chatroom lets have a go at nominating a puzzle of the year.

Simply post a link in this thread to the puzzle that you most enjoyed from the past year.

We'll count up the votes at the end and make some sort of non corrupt / democratic decision. We tried this before without much success so lets see if we can do it this year. Who knows it may become a regular feature.

The polls are open!

[WiZ]

I'm still giving it some thought, but, in the meantime, I have compressed all the solved puzzles from this year into a single word document. Sometimes the spoiler went in the vein of 'what he said', so the final round of questions and answers is included as the spoiler. I have left off lateral mazes, rulebreakers, and potential other types of puzzle that did not lend themselves to a clean Q and A format.

I can't upload a .doc or .docx to the forum, so anyone who wants a copy, feel free to e-mail me at wellingtao at gmail dot com.

[Balin]

I've pared down my potential nominations to about 20. My goal is to pick five to nominate.

I will say right now, though, that I've found two puzzles which are easily my top two picks.

[Balin]

Okay, I've cut it down to 15 and then to five, which was very painful since there were a lot of really good puzzles. Here are my five nominees, in order (1 is my favorite):

1. WiZ – The riddle of this fink's
http://lateralpuzzles.com/puzzles/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11287

2. vever – Fast food for thought
http://lateralpuzzles.com/puzzles/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11040

3. WiZ – Grant us a piece
http://lateralpuzzles.com/puzzles/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11179

4. IrishElk – Abre Los Ojos
http://lateralpuzzles.com/puzzles/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11231

5. JenBurdoo – No ticket
http://lateralpuzzles.com/puzzles/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11251

I'll share the rest of my top 15 later.

[jumpingjacks]

Are lateral adventures not eligible?

I'll have a proper look at all the puzzles I liked, but just wanted to nominate this for now, for being the one that made me laugh the most:

WiZ - The First Sentence Would Win Lyttle Lytton
http://lateralpuzzles.com/puzzles/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11266&hilit=snake#p37392

(It's the one about the man farting on a snake)

[peter365]

I've a feeling our Europe based Antipodean is going to feature a lot in this list :

Here's my favourite:

WiZ - Vincent
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11249

[Balin]

"Vincent" was a good one too.

[WiZ]

My top 5, in preference order.

1. Peter - Just don't call me early

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11071

2. JenBurdoo - Location, Location, Location

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11150

3. Irishelk - When You were Young

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11177

4. Balin - It must have been the weekly world news

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11112

5. Solong - Tramping Up and Down

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11051

I also liked Jen's 'No Ticket' and Irishelk's 'Abre Los Ojos'.

[Westing1992]

Though I didn't participate in either, I second The riddle of the fink's and Location, Location, Location (with the latter, I had seen that news article before it started, so I figured it out fairly quickly).

On the other hand, I'm also nominating The public sector works a bit like this--though, since I was the one to make the final leap to solve it, I may be biased. It was a fun puzzle anyway.

And I'll round out my selections with Mixed Feelings and Mobile Books.

[peter365]

Wow I'm flattered that WiZ rates my FAT GIT so highly.

His Riddle of the Fink's viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11287 is proving popular and rightly so .

Of all the puzzles posted here this year it's the one that I've tried out on family and friends most often. I'd add my recommendation and would put it a close second to my earlier Vincent nomination.

[Balin]

"Riddle of this fink's" and another WiZ puzzle, "This was a nightmare to phrase,"
http://www.lateralpuzzles.com/puzzles/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11238
are the two I've tried on family and friends the most. "Nightmare" just missed my top five.

[WiZ]

On that note, Balin, how did you find people responded to your framing of the puzzle (if you indeed used the same/similar wording)? I delayed that puzzle for weeks because I was trying to work out how to word the question.

[Balin]

I pretty much used your wording, and people generally understood it. So I'd definitely say you did a nice job wording that statement.

[irishelk]

I'm so honored just to be nominated! I'd like to thank the Academy, and Bev in Wardrobe for this gorgeous dress [fake laugh]...

As usual, a list of my favorite puzzles is dominated by WiZ and JenBurdoo. But I'll only do one per user for my top spots, in the interest of fairness:


WiZ -- You can stem the flow of WiZ puzzles by not solving em

Konnie – Chips

Gabbo – Driving the Race car

Balin – Reza sunshine

Twilightseeker – Self-implication

Admin -- The Athlete

Grip --Befuddled Lady

Jenburdoo – Location, location, location

Magpie – Don’t ask, don’t tell

Redwine – Sale!

[JenBurdoo]

I definitely liked FAT OLD GIT. I also like Butterfly in Shades of Grey except that it isn't solved yet.

I confess to surprise that any of mine were selected...

[Admin]

Some great puzzles here. I particularly liked:

Wiz - Riddle of the Finks

Wiz - Vincent

JenBurdoo - No Ticket

Balin - It must have been Weekly World News

CoffeeBean - Mixed Feelings

[Grip]

Merry Christmas everybody!!!

I'd vote, but I don't feel I've been on here long enough to fairly judge what puzzles were best this year.

[irishelk]

Merry Christmas Grip and everyone! Happy to have you, you ask good questions.

JenBurdoo:

Your puzzles are routinely among my favorites, as WiZ can attest since I let him peek at my all-time favorites list. You tend to pick very interesting situations to base puzzles around!

[Balin]

Now that it's 2017, it's probably time to pick a consensus winner. For now, here are all the puzzles which have been nominated more than once in this thread:

Three nominations:
WiZ - The riddle of this fink's
JenBurdoo - No ticket
JenBurdoo - Location, Location, Location

Two nominations:
WiZ - Vincent
IrishElk - Abre Los Ojos
Balin - It must have been the Weekly World News
CoffeeBean - Mixed Feelings

[peter365]

I'd go for Riddle of the Fink's myself. A short head in front of Vincent

[WiZ]

Mr. Speaker, I cast my conscience vote for Location, Location, Location, by the honourable member for Florida*. *Returns to seat*

*Yes, I know we have multiple Floridians. Assume we have an electorate for Grip's part of the state, too.

[Balin]

"Riddle of this fink's" was my No. 1, so it gets my final vote also.

[irishelk]

I, for one, propose a tie, with WiZ and Jen forming a coalition dictatorship.

[JenBurdoo]

... I'm honored.

I haven't participated much in this thread because I can't really choose just one, but I find Balin, Wiz and Peter among the most creative puzzle-writers here. Peter's I particularly repeat regularly in real life.

[WiZ]

If we count JenBurdoo's nod towards FAT OLD GIT as a nomination, we should be including Peter's 'Just don't call me early' in the final shortlist.

To be fair, I think all eight of them deserve a place on P&D's next collection... or perhaps we should save them for the 'best of the LTPF' anthology.

[peter365]

Thanks Jen for the kind words. Unfortunately I'm seldom able to come up with much these days. I've been guilty of trying to force a good idea recently and have had to stop myself posting puzzles that were overly contrived. My muse will come back soon I'm sure but it's a puzzle every two months or so from me for the foreseeable future.

I think to be included in Paul's book the puzzle has to be completely original and my FAT GIT was inspired by the QI TV show. I came up with the scenario but it was because of a discussion they had about funny Airport codes.

[WiZ]

Now, I know I have a vested interest in saying this, but should we think about wrapping this up? Maybe set a deadline for February for the final votes to be cast, so those who have recently returned (or have been sitting on the lateral face) have some incentive to take part.

The winner then receives a crown, a sceptre made of a wooden stick exactly the length of a dwarf with a little bit sawn off, and an albatross sandwich, home-made by some Mom and Pop institution.

Plus the title of 'PUZZEL OF THE YEAR!'

[peter365]

It's been an interesting battel

[Balin]

Since it is a week into February, I agree that it is time to close this up and make a decision.

In both the preliminary round and multiple-nominations round, WiZ's "Riddle of this fink's" received the most votes, so I think we can officially declare it Puzzle of the Year 2016.

[peter365]

I agree, well done WiZ .

Behold our champion WiZ – The riddle of this fink's viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11287

We should do this again next year.

[WiZ]

Hooray! Thank you all for your support. I'm so glad you enjoyed the puzzel.

Come March, I should be back here with some more. I hope they're half as good as The riddle of this fink's.

[Balin]

Congratulations WiZ, congrats all for a good year of puzzling.

I said earlier that I'd share my top 15, which have now become a top 16; here they are. (If yours isn't on this list, I still really liked it.)

1. [WiZ] The riddle of this fink’s
2. [vever] Fast food for thought
3. [WiZ] Grant us a piece
4. [IrishElk] Abre los ojos
5. [JenBurdoo] No ticket
6. [WiZ] This was a nightmare to phrase
7. [CoffeeBean] Mixed feelings
8. [Zanreo] Less is more
9. [peter365] Just don't call me early
10. [WiZ] For an Oceanian, I post a lot of puzzles about Europe
11. [Insight] I immediately knew the solution
12. [JenBurdoo] Location location location
13. [IrishElk] When you were young
14. [Tiger] The fox and the tanuki
15. [Peter365] Snail mail
16. [psymann] Not fair!

[WiZ]

All excellent puzzles, Balin.

I must say, I am proud of all of us for seeing this contest from start to finish. This is the first year in which we have done so, although not the first in which we have tried.

Looking forward to next year's contest.