Sudoku Showdown - St. Louis

I am so behind the times.

It was just a few weeks ago that I heard somebody talking about being addicted to Sudoku. At first, I thought this person was trying to say "Sudafed" and was just too strung-out to say it right.

Then, upon some reflection, I wondered if Sudoku was a young-person's term for some street drug that I didn't know?

And my ignorance was a pure moment of bliss.

You see, I was glad my crazy, been-there-done-that ass didn't know what they were talking about. It would have been, had my latter assumption been right...a first.

I nodded, smiled and quickly went about my way. Very quickly. This is Missouri, y'all. Some hot mess will knock you over the head with her pocketbook for a stray red pill.

Or an ounce of fertilizer, for that matter.

So, I came home and via the magic of Google's toolbar, learned that Sudoku is a number game that has captured the minds of young and old alike. Apparently, it's quite addictive, making it much like Missouri's #1 drug export -- without the teeth rotting, brain-frying consequences.

How nice for them, I thought and quickly navigated my browser to Democracy Now for my daily fix. I don't need any more habits to break, whether they're mathematical, pharmaceutical or geo-political.

As it turns out: $50,000 is up for grabs when the national face-to-face Sudoku competition kicks off here in May!

Incidentally:

A Cornell University physics professor has made a major discovery: an algorithm developed to process X-ray diffraction data also solves Sudoku puzzles.

Now, I don't know what the hell any of that means. Shit...all I know is that when Seven of Nine's cybernetic Borg implants malfunctioned, she used an algorithm to lock down the holodeck. That's what I know about math and science: hot chicks in cat-suits.

So...I went to the professor's webpage where I learned:

My professional trajectory reads Caltech → Berkeley → Bell Labs → Cornell. If you are observant, you will have noticed the symmetry, both in initial letters (C B B C), and word lengths (7 8 8 7)

Umm.

Well.

Scrabble, anyone?