Lost Users Manual

Last year, my friend Harvey introduced me to the game called Sudoku. It's a logic game where you have 9 blocks with 9 squares in each block. Every square in each block is filled with the numbers 1 to 9. The part where this game gets challenging is that you can't have the same number twice in any of the rows or columns of the larger 3 by 3 block grid. While flying back from Oslo, I found out Continental Airlines had an electronic version of Sudoku for sale. I bought one and I was very pleased with it. Then, I had a brain fart. I threw out the user's manual for the game. I didn't realize it was for my electronic sudoku game until it was too late. Subsequently, I looked for another game console so I could get another copy of the users manual. To my surprise, I couldn't find the same game any where on the Internet. Also, I couldn't find a webpage for the company that makes the game unit. Finally, I wrote the company that distributes the game asking them if I could buy a new users manual or game console so I could get the users manual. To my delight, Mr. G. Pollard of Scorpio Distributors Limited, Lowfield Heath, United Kingdom sent me a users manual for free. Many thanks to him and his company. I promise I won't throw that one out.

Sudoku

I started playing Sudoku again. I know I'll be playing the electronic version I bought on my flight back from Oslo, Norway while enroute and back to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's a great way to while away some time while you're waiting for your flight at the airport as well as use up some of the scrap paper from your computer printer.

This past Sunday, I was at the Laurel Books-a-Million. I saw a Sudoku game book that offered tips on how to solve the puzzles faster. I decided to see what tips it offered. While checking those out, I found out that Sudoku has become bigger than crossword puzzles in the U.S. There are now more Sudoku puzzle books published than crossword puzzle books. All major newspapers now carry the puzzles. I suspect people prefer Sudoku because it isn't dependent on their vocabulary. Also, the puzzles are very challenging. Last night, I tried to beat my best time of 12 minutes 51 seconds. Luck wasn't with me though. I swear the machine came up with one of the harder level 1 puzzles. It ended up taking me over 41 minutes to solve the dang thing. Still, it was fun doing the puzzle and it is a great way to exercise the mind. I look forward to playing a lot of Sudoku while I'm off on my latest adventure.