I don’t know what the punch line to this joke would be. Not a newspaper, not a penguin. Well, penguins are a bit odd, I guess. Could still be a penguin. I mean, literally the answer is this puzzle, right? Except I color odd and even cells, undermining the whole “black and white” part.

The challenges in creating these larger puzzles are multiple. I could have created more than four single-grid puzzles in less time than it took to create this one, in part because each change required me to re-solve the puzzle from the start, to be sure I hadn’t broken anything unexpectedly. Still, the satisfaction of a working gattai that also follows the rules I’ve set for myself, it’s worth spending the extra time on one out of every dozen puzzles or so.

The standard wording of the Clones rule allows for multiple sets of clones, but this puzzle includes six copies of a single shaded area. Coloring is fun for children and adults alike!

An Irregular Sudoku grid with a non-contiguous region is possible, but usually there can be only one, else how to determine to which region the errant cells belong? I’ve kept these connected, albeit tenuously, and the resulting shapes seem like botanical pixel art.

While setting puzzles, I sometimes have a song running through my mind, but when it comes to naming, often I find that I’ve misremembered lyrics or entirely invented songs. This puzzle’s title goes with a tune, but none that’s ever been heard by anyone but me.

I’ve pointed out before that Sudoku arrows don’t often point to anything, but in this case, quite a few arrows seem to be pointed at that center box in the grid. That could mean something.

Some have guidelines about how much time to spend on social situations, while others go with the flow without any plan ahead of time. An hourglass tracks time without being disruptive, requiring one to notice that the flow of sand has ended. This puzzle includes an hourglass shape made of a Near Neighbor line. These are three completely-unrelated facts.

Sometimes I wish I hadn’t used “Every Other” in so many puzzle titles already, because Parity Lines are very deserving of the appellation. This puzzle was inspired by thoughts about odd and even digits, and how many of each are found within the standard set of Sudoku digits, so I thought of it as an “Every Other” puzzle until it came time to choose a title, at which point all creativity left me.

I think the world would likely be a slightly better place with no kings anywhere at all. I’m pretty republican in that anti-monarchy sense. But I’m not calling for violence! I just don’t believe any sort of unitary authority can safely exist, and would like all those who attempt such things to be stopped from doing so.