Christopher explained at length his search for a general solution to sudoku puzzles. He was looking for equivalence classes, sets of sudoku solutions that differ only in the permutations of their rows and columns. He was also looking for a quicker-than-brute-force algorithm to solve them.
Most people just pay for the books. They write in the margins of the squares. Or they do the sudoku first in pencil. Sudoku seems to sell very well to people taking long flights.
Sitting there reading a compendium of Dashiell Hammet novels, wedged in between two tall German guys, I watched them pass their sudoku book back and forth every hour or so of the 10-hour flight from SFO to FRA. On the audio was a sultry, female hypnotist’s contralto describing my hallucinogenic journey through fields of fragrant lilies (funerals), brilliant poppies, giant lacy blooms floating in the wind. For some reason, I heard dogs barking and giving chase as I drifted off. If they caught me, the slavering hounds would tear me to shreds.
The 747, a hellish transport container for human veal. Sudoku fits perfectly. There we are stuck, minds focused on pointless activity, open to advertisements for things we do not need, eating soft food with safe utensils. Do we ever get out of that situation?
Figments of a lack of imagination