The blog is not entirely surprised to see from our site traffic reports that a piece that ran a couple of weeks ago about the origins of Su Doku is doing brisk trade online. Upwards of 10,000 hits per day.
We suspect our national obsession with the numbers grid is getting out of control. What is to become of those of us that might want to place two identical digits between 1 and 9 in a row, or in a 3 x 3 box.
The blog has touched on the subject of numbers before, but we have since seen the Su Doku experience described so well by Norm that we feel the need to quote it in full.
Tackling a Sudoku is a very limited and mechanical experience, with only three modes. 1) You fill in the possible numbers for each square until the information you have enables you to eliminate, to narrow the possibilities, and this eventually and more or less smoothly leads to a successful completion. 2) Exactly as in 1), except that you get stuck somewhere; but not too badly stuck, so that a little reflection finds the breakthrough and you get there. 3) You get stuck permanently and after a while throw the thing away. It's not very rewarding, not in any of the modes.
Words not numbers. The backlash starts here.
