i have seen others whittling away at these spordadically numbered boxes, in fact on a previous flight i sat catty-corner, across the aisle and one row back, from a couple of pleasant elder women who poured nonstop over books of these puzzles (no, “puzzle” does no justice…um…”enigmatic conundrums!” is better.) i remember distinctly thinking, “ah, how sweet – old ladies and their puzzle books. yawn.”
today, this very afternoon, while midair, flipping through a copy of the complimentary airline magazine located in the seatback pocket in front of me, i found myself reading the description for the game sudoku (pronounced: sūdoku): “the aim is to fill in numerals from 1 to 9 so that every horizontal and vertical line and every large 3-by-3 square contains only one instance of each number.” i thought, “hmm…” and soon myself, and toni (my wife) were pointing with black ink pen, whispering numbers. it was glorious. it is a drug. oh my word! sudoku!!! i can’t quit. i have been working these sudoku puz…, sorry, “enigmatic conuncrums!” nonstop since. if you have not given it a go, try this, and behold its psychosomatic effects: