Short Bus Sudoku
Discovering that I can complete a Sudoku puzzle hit me with the same level of awe as if I’d dropped 80lbs overnight.
There are two things that I’m horribly bad at: anything related to numbers and anything related to logic or analysis. Sudoku for the one or two of you who don’t know, combines both in a puzzle that consists of a grid nine columns and nine rows each numbered one through nine with numbers out of sequence, some that are missing. To solve the puzzle, each row and each column must contain a number one through nine.
It’s an easy concept but it doesn’t play to my strengths even a little and so an “easy” puzzle which a school-aged child could no doubt complete in 5 minutes takes me about an hour. The people who are good at Sodoku are the same ones that know that when a northbound train leaves DC at 4am traveling 70mph and a southbound train leaves Boston at 5am traveling 35mph, they meet in New York at noon.
I read a sentence like that and think, “who in there right mind would take a 4am train for god’s sake?” and “why is that train from Boston only going 35mph? It’s faster to drive!”. But those who operate comfortably in the world of reason and logical deduction operate deftly in that world.
In order to work a Sodoku, I have to make up little stories about the numbers in order to make them fit into the correct square, “the ‘1’ can’t go there because there’s already a “1” in that row… my ‘1’s” evil twin, they can’t stand each other and that’s why that “1” can’t go there.
45 minutes when I have all the number neatly in the proper square, my number have all had these rich stories that got them into their proper space. Even though I’ve technically solved the puzzle, I don’t think I’m doing it “right”.
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