…with Killer Sudoku.
Since this is a cycling blog, let me say that I discovered Killer Sudoku puzzles on a cycling vacation in France. On Sunday I would wander down to the bakery before they closed for the day, then head to the tabac to buy The Sunday Times. This London publication was the only English language paper available in our little village and provided an interesting slant on news from the British point of view. “Two peoples separated by a common language”. Indeed!
The paper had a puzzle section, with a crossword that was completely beyond me. But there was also a new-to-me puzzle: the Killer Sudoku.
Sudoku puzzles are everywhere, and I have been doing the standard version for years. But these were different, and to my way of thinking much more fun. Here is an example:

The grid is the same, but you have groups of cells (called cages) bordered by broken lines, with a number in the upper left corner. That number is the sum of all the digits in the cage. Look at the bottom right: there is a cage with two cells adding up to 17. Those two cells must be the digits 8 and 9 in some order. If you see a cage with 3 cells that sum to 23, you know the digits have to be 6,8 and 9. Also digits are not repeated in any cage even if it crosses into different regular 3×3 Sudoku boxes.
The 9 3×3 boxes of a traditional Sudoku still contain the digits 1 to 9, which means they add up to 45. Look at the upper right 3×3 box. It contains an 8 cell cage adding to 43. That means the 9th cell (lower left of the 3×3 box) must be 2. This is a very simple example, and things get much more complicated very quickly.
These are perfect pandemic puzzles. The harder ones take a lot of time and require concentration. I don’t guess. I examine possibilities and find which ones lead to contradictions. Some of the inferences are long chains and demand complete attention.
During the last 9 months, I probably have thought about Covid and its implications for life in the US and the world and for Stoker and me every single hour I’m awake. Even asleep I’ve had Covid dreams where I am on a bike tour or in a store or at a party (remember those?) and everyone is maskless, to my horror.
But give me a level 9 Killer Sudoku, an erasable pen or pencil, and a quiet couch in a sunny room that I share with Luke, and for an hour or two I bury myself in the digits from 1 to 9 and Covid thoughts leave my brain. Two puzzles after a bike ride and I’m good until the vodka/local news hour at 5 pm.