Do You Su Doku?

My friend T has introduced me to Su Doku, the number puzzle, and I'm completely hooked.

I have always liked logic puzzles, and this is right up there for a pleasant brain workout. At the end of a successful Su Doku, my brain has the same sort of tired buzz that it used to after a bout of Latin homework. Very satisfying.

The interesting thing about Su Doku, as compared to a crossword puzzle, is that if you get a number wrong, the whole thing can go straight down the toilet. Suddenly, you don't know what numbers are right and what are wrong, and you have to erase everything and start over. Because I hate doing anything twice, I have started doing the first half of the puzzle in pen, and then I switch to pencil when things get rocky. At least this way, I only have to erase half the numbers.

They have just started to put a Su Doku in the daily newspaper, and this pleases me, but it's often on the reverse of the page that Jim's beloved crossword is on - thank you very much, Star Phoenix, for this new marital strife.