Pappocom rates the puzzle VHard, exceptionally difficult, arguably unfair and valid. I think these *Unfair Yet Valid* puzzles are the kind that can be solved with colouring or chains, as opposed to puzzles needing fishy stuff which are just *Plain Invalid*.
I don’t mind if chains are outlawed. I never liked them - perhaps because of the overtones of domination - but colouring’s a different matter. For one thing it’s pretty and besides that it’s ‘conjugateness’ is very appealing. As long as colouring is excluded, Wayne and I are going to be a little at odds. That one small bias aside, I’ll continue to defend his programme to which I feel deeply loyal in much the way one always is to one’s first love, even after one has moved on to other things ... if you get my drift.
I’ve had a computer-free holiday and found I was quite happy swimming in the sea of puzzles that didn’t require solvers or advanced mental gymnastics and also that on the whole, the general population is pretty unimpressed by double implication bifurcation chains. Surprise! I think that despite our quibbles over the invalid / unfair exclusions, Wayne has probably pitched his programme just about right for most of the puzzle-solving world.
