Listener 4438

[Encota]

What a fabulous puzzle by Oyler and a superb tribute to the original Rhombus - delightful. I sat in trepidation when checking that the perimeter values were perfect squares - and was relieved to find that they were so. Many thanks Oyler!

[Ruthrobin]

I could never use the word 'fabulous' for a numerical puzzle but have to say that it is a delightful relief to have completed it and found, with masses of Internet help, that those perimeters worked and all the divisors. Thanks to Oyler.

[AHearer]

Actually, I sneaked up on the answer by using that information about the perimeter values. With a few solutions that intersected the perimeter it was possible to determine the perimeter unambiguously, and that made the rest of the grid-fill so much easier. Not, I am sure, the way it was meant to be solved but, hey, all's fair in love and crosswords. As ever, in awe of Oyler's ingenuity.

[JustinTime]

Started with the perimeter. With only 30 options it was easy to construct. The in fill then became easy ending up with Sudoko type eliminations. Final check on the number of factors and another pointless numerical completed.
As I have said before, with a real crossword I always learn something, often something totally uninteresting, with a numeric - nothing.
But as I think Jim 360 said "numericals are here to stay". Let us hope they are all this easy!

[Scorpius]

I followed the same route as AHearer after finding a useful internet site with all possible perimeter values. Slow-going at first, but once about two-thirds of the grid was filled the rest fell into place quickly.

[borealis]

1967? No programming, no spreadsheets, no calculator. No internet for primes or perfect squares. Abramowitz and Stegun was first published in '64, but I doubt if it could be allowed as a prime reference - pun unintended! OK, I want to know how to do this with pencil and paper - blog please Oyler! This was fun; I worked outwards rather than looking for the perimeters.

[fyellin]

With a six-hour plane ride and a fully-charged laptop, I'm sorry to report that it *is* possible to solve this puzzle using no insight whatsoever.

1. Figure out every possible entry to every possible clue.
2. Find those clues that only have one possible (remaining) entry.
3. Remove all the possible entries that class with the definite entries you just discovered.
4. Go back to step 2 if not done.

For honor's sake, I did solve the puzzle "correctly" first.

[Cruncher]

A couple of grid entries, a lot of searching for the perimeter squares and a handy factorial app and this was pretty quick work. I think it would have been a lot tougher without figuring out the perimeter. BTW does anyone find that their computer crashes on this new site with slow script messages?