A pamphlet every Marshall resident should review to find out more about our community

For quite a few years I have enjoyed doing Sudoku puzzles from the newspaper as well as some from the magazine racks. The books of Sudoku puzzles are often arranged from easy up to hard. They often have some of the puzzles that are on grids allowing for sixteen by sixteen spaces rather than the usual nine by nine.

My usual modus operandi was to start with the harder ones at the back (just nine by nines, not the larger ones) and work my way forward to the really easy ones in the front. For those of you who may have never done any of those puzzles, it is worth noting that it is not a mathematical puzzle. If all of the numbers were changed to other symbols, the puzzles could still be solved.

However, there are variations that are close to Sudoku that do require at least some arithmetic skills of add, subtract, mulitply and divide. Ken-Ken are of this type. They are usuallly a pit tricker to solve.

Several years back, I also got hooked on doing the Numbrix Puzzles that Marilyn vos Savant, supposedly one of the world's smartest women. The Numbrix puzzle consists of 81 squares, nine by nine, in which the numbers from one to eighty-one fit in a unique way. Again, not a terribly hard puzzle, but I often make enough errors in the original that I have produced a 9 by 9 grid on my compute so I can duplicate the puzzle in case my scribbling makes the original a mess.

Then this past weekend, I was in a conversation with five other folks and the conversation turned to a "new" puzzle that is now the property of the New York Times. There is a grid of five by six boxes and the idea is to guess what the five letter word is that the author is thinking of.

I now have done two of those puzzles, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. It took me to the sixth row of boxes to get the first word and three rows of boxes to get the second word.

I have not figured out a strategy to solve the puzzle, but the guesses must be real five letter words and the feedback tells you if your letters are in the puzzle and whether you have the right location for a particular letter.

My starting word out of the blue is SUGAR which allows determination of whether the least used vowel, is in the word thought of by the puzzle maker, that is, the U. There is just one puzzle per day and toward the late afternoon, they give the answer if you hadn't yet solved the puzzle.

It also keeps track of how successful you are. You can access the puzzle by entering WORDLE in your browser. Try it!

jtr

With last week's Thursday Independent, I also received a really great booklet/pamphlet that I will likely save for a good long time and refer to now and then. It is titled: 2022 Community Guide, Marshall - Celebrating 150 years.

However, it is much more than Marshall and includes information about all of the communities in this area. The booklet is a joint project of the Independent and the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce. There is a listing of all of the members of the Chamber of Commerce, both businesses and individuals.

One of the criticisms I have often heard is that there is nothing to do in Marshall, but several sections of the pamphlet should dispel that opinion. There are a full 14 Summer Events that could keep a person busy almost every weekend in the summer. Those events would take you to most of the area communities. For example: Belgian American Days in Ghent, Polska Kielbasa Days in Ivanhoe, Tracy Box Car Days, Tyler Aebleskiver Days. And, of course, others including the Sounds of Summer in Marshall Itself that covers several days, not just one. In addition there is a listing of about four activities in each month of the year. The Lyon County Fair also runs for about a week in August.

I wonder how many Marshall residents have visited each of the twelve listed Marshall parks. In addition there are four great state and county parks.

One that I have never visited is Twin Lakes Park in the southwest corner of Lyon County. Something to do come summer.

Now if you are into trying various eating places, there are lots to choose from scattered all over the county and including quite diverse menus.

jtr

Some of the data presented is quite interesting. There is a list of population over the years, 1970-2020 for both the city and the county with a record of the number of single family units for housing as well as other housing possibilities.

Who are the employers?

Obviously not all employers are listed, but the list goes from Schwans at about 900 employees down to BH Electronics, Inc. at 85 employees. The small businesses in the area are in evidence throughout the pamphlet that has advertising for the wide diversity of businesse that keep the community in good shape.

Education is an important facet of our community and besides being a large employer, it is also a very diverse field offering great opportunities at virtual all levels from pre-school to graduate school.

So thank you Independent and Chamber of Commerce. I will continue to enjoy your publication throughout the year.

Until next time: Oh, Fiddlesticks!