Sudoku

In his "The Pop of King" January 20th editorial in Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King writes "Is Sudoku the stupidest game to ever appear in newspapers, or what?" I like Stephen King a lot- almost embarassingly so. He's considered a pop writer, but he really has some genuine literary chops. King is dead wrong on this one though.

Sudoku is a fun and quite intelligent game. The trap Mr. King seems to have fallen into is that it looks deceptively easy. It is quite a challenge at times, providing hours of deep thought.

What's interesting about Sudoku is that it reveals the way people think. For example I like to stay in the boxes and solve the puzzle box to box. My friend R-dogg looks more at the lines and only uses the boxes when he needs to. A-list tends to view the whole puzzle and fills in the boxes erratically, with no pattern I can think of. Such is the way we think.

Steve, you need to give Sudoku a second glance. I often use it to bring my brain out of a haze. It sometimes works better than coffee. And I sure love my coffee.