Every month, our Monthly Mystery department consists of a program, feature, game, puzzle, or other item which is intended as a little something extra ("lagniappe," to use Louisiana terminology) in addition to the other content of the issue. We try to make the Monthly Mystery item a little more "unexpected" than the other issue content. While other items follow a fairly consistent rotational schedule to ensure a good balance of features, the Monthly Mystery can be anything, and is likely to be whatever you least expect.
This month's Monthly Mystery was as much a surprise to me as it is to you; we originally had something else slated for this spot, but it was pulled at the last minute, causing me to scramble to rewrite the text. It's never a dull moment at Softdisk.
^C{This month's mystery is:
^CBaroness Solitaire
^Cby Matthew Hudson}
Yep, {another} solitaire card game. Well, readers seem to like them, and Matthew Hudson has been providing us with them in a highly prolific manner.
This is a different sort of solitaire than usual, anyway. Instead of piling up cards from ace through king onto foundations, you are attempting to take away cards from the tableaus, by removing pairs of cards that total 13. (Jacks count as 11, queens as 12, and kings are removable singly as 13.) Cards are dealt out four at a time, and you need to try to remove all of them by the time you get to the end of the deck. This can be tough!
Next month, we'll have another Monthly Mystery for you. Will it be another solitaire card game, or something else entirely? Your guess is as good as mine; just because I work here doesn't mean they tell me stuff.
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