Coffee on the Log — Daily puzzle for 2026-11-07

Hard — logic-grid deduction puzzle

A spilled mug of coffee washed out the night's log, so the shifts, consoles and snacks of Roderick, Sylvia, Terence and Vivienne have to be pieced back together from memory.

It was 1969, and the big tracking antenna was following an Apollo spacecraft across the night sky. Four operators kept watch through the dark hours: Roderick, Sylvia, Terence and Vivienne. The night was split into four shifts, numbered one to four. Each operator worked a single shift, sat at a single console and took a single snack from the trolley. At the end of every shift, the operator signed the log. Then, just before dawn, someone knocked over a mug of coffee. It soaked the page and the ink ran until nothing could be read. All that is left now is what the crew remembers. Can you piece the night back together?

Clues

1. Either Sylvia sat at the dish or Terence worked the fourth shift, but not both.
2. Roderick's shift number and Vivienne's shift number added up to six.
3. Vivienne's shift came before Roderick's.
4. Only one of these was true: Sylvia had the apple, or Terence had the biscuit.
5. The shift with the biscuit came right after the shift with the apple.
6. The operator at the dish worked before the one at the radio, who worked before the one at the tape.
7. Whoever sat at the radio had the tea.

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