Sudoku Mojo

As noted previously in this blog, we have some Sudoku crazies out here. It's hard to set down a coffee cup on a table without it landing on a Sudoku book coaster. And they come in various flavors -- Insanely Hard Sudokus, Sudokus for Yalies, Jane Fonda's Sudoku Workout -- I don't know; I've lost track. Through all of this craze, I have steadfastly refused to be dragged in. I say, "I'm really not a puzzle person," while what I really mean is, "I don't want to be humiliated." So night before last, in a lapse of judgement, I announced that I was going to actually do one. Shuffling through the selection of Sudoku books, one of the Sudokuites managed to find me a suitable candidate on page one of a book -- your basic Sudoku for Dummies kind of thing. Probably half the squares were populated, including the full diagonal of the grid going sequentially from 1 to 9. I was ready!!! Armed with a pencil, I applied my rigorously analytical mind to the problem. After 15 minutes of poking around, I hadn't filled in a square. Dara in the meantime is about to die from resisting the urge to help me. Finally she says, "Let me just show you one thing so you are armed with some of the basic strategy." "No!!! I am going to do this myself!" Kyla then shows the real Beatty genes in her makeup. She picks up one of the other books -- I think it was Sudokus That Will Make You Cry -- and announces that while I am struggling with the Sudoku With Training Wheels, she is going to work the Sudoku for Einstein in parallel to see who gets done fastest. Of course, she whipped it right out while I was proudly filling in my 2nd or 3rd square. Burn!!! as Garrett would say. Well, I am proud to say that I did finish mine -- the next night. Photographic evidence supplied above.

Kyla asked if I was now addicted. I would have to characterize it more as cured.