Garfield by Jim Davis for January 29, 2010

Over the last couple of days everyone’s having fun at Jon’s expense.

Oh yeah! Crosswords are much easier…

I think Sudoku in Japanese means waste of time.

Actually it means “frost my cookies”!

Sudoku are comics for robots.

Keep going Jon. Sudoku is sometimes very tricky.

Referring to a past strip that involved crossword, I hope that the correct number of R’s are being used.

I understand that kind of frustration… :)

Jon should switch to word searches. The answers are already there.

I’m not sure what Sudoku is Japanese for. I do know that karaoke is Japanese for “tone deaf and drunk.”

I agree, Jon should move on to something simpler. I wonder if he could put together one of those 100 piece puzzles.

Or should we drive him nuts with a 1000 piece puzzle with all white pieces?

SUDOKU is actually trivial. What you do is look for a line with lots of numbers on it. And find the column with the most numbers. In that square where they cross, write down all the possible numbers (in pencil). That will be only one possibility for an easy one, two for more difficult, etc.

If it is more than one possible, then do it for other squares in the same 3x3. Look and see which of the possibles is the only one, based on these other requirements.

Keep doing this until finished. Trial and error is worthless; that is what Jon is doing. If the puzzle is easy, then it should only take about 15 minutes. The third one gets boring.

The real translation of Sudoku isn’t quite so funny as those suggested here, but is very literally descriptive. The Japanese took the “Number Place” puzzle that was already popular among many puzzlers in the US, named it in their language “One Number,” and then when it caught on big over there, re-exported it to the rest of the world with their name attached. (I have oversimplified the name slightly. It is really a shortening of a longer sentence that literally says “the digits must remain single/unmarrried”)

WCORVI Have you been reading too much Joe Dotty? If I wanted knowledge, GOCOMICS is not my first choice.

And for those of you who, like Jon, are frustrated with Sudokus, or conversely think them too easy, you can find a variety of levels at many sites online. My favorite source is BrainBashers.com, who have, each day, 6 new puzzles, ranked very easy, easy, medium, hard, very hard, super hard. They also have a page outlining solving techniques. Because these are logic puzzles, you should not have to resort to trial and error if you know how to eliminate the impossible step by step to get to the possible.

Hey Jon. The old lady hasn’t done it for you yet. Take it to her.

I need a three-letter word for “loser”. J…. O….. N….

who uses a pencil for crosswords or sudoku? if you can’t do it in ink……don’t even go there. Hey gocomic, sudokui is plural.

I thought Odie solved that Sudoku puzzle yesterday!

Just wait until he tries Killer Sudoku!

I hate sudoku but my little sister kills them and it sucks cus she is ten years younger than me but she cant tell you the captial of Idaho!!

LOL!!!! (And “Karaoke” is Japanese for “fat businessmen who can’t carry a tune.”)

jaiel, that’s easy, the captial (sic) of Idaho is “I”.

Wait, is who blonde? What do you mean? Next thing you know you’ll be telling me that the two days that begin with “T” aren’t Today and Tomorrow. Sheesh.

it means bleeep

bleeep

I once filled in a crossword with whatever words I wanted. Snert and Fnord were included. A co-worker was really impressed before he looked at it closely.

Ah crossword snobbery, don’t bother to do it if you don’t use ink. Geez, what if you’re a kid, or you are just starting to get into them? What if you have a few hundred pencils laying around the house?

I don’t even know how to play sudoku

Jikan no muda.

HMMMM

How many A’s, five, or six?

Only people from Tokio know the answer.