Just what we need. Another way to use up the little time we have left on planet earth.

Pencil and paper, or Mac or PC, Sudoku is the latest rage whose time has come to take more of your time. My question of the day is: 'Do we need to spend time on Sudoku?

Sudoku is a logic-based puzzle game that’s akin to a numerical crossword puzzle. Without the words.

Pencil and paper are the tools of trade for Sudoku, though there are plenty of Sudoku applications for Mac and PC. Too many? Yes.

Why? As with any good puzzle or game, Sudoku can be addicting. Addictions take time and energy. There’s no warning of that in Sudoku for Dummies (yes, I bought the book).

Sudoku, as the story goes, was actually started in the US back in the 1970s, caught on big in Japan less than a decade later, and has gone world wide in the past couple of years.

If you’re a Mac user, there’s about a dozen Sudoku applications available; even more for Windows. Mac users will find all the Sudoku utilities you need when you Click Here.

After a whole day of head scratching, keyboard clanking, and listening to the sound of gray matter falling to the floor, I figured out Sudoku What is Sudoku? It’s a puzzle in which you bleed time for no apparent reason. Crossword puzzles stimulate the brain and help with your vocabulary.

Sudoku stimulates that part of your brain which controls frustration. The same part that golfers use.

The idea of Sudoku is to enter a number from 1 to 9 in each cell of a 9x9 grid. The grid is made up of 3x3 subgrids, called regions. Each row, column, and region can contain only one instance of each of the numbers, 1 through 9.

What tools do you need? A pencil. Patience. Logic. And time (seems to work best with patience). Or, get the book, ‘Sudoku for Dummies,’ now in 3 volumes.

How much of a ‘dummy’ does a person have to be to have all three volumes?

Sudoku on your Mac or Windows PC works the same way, except you don’t need the Sudoku magazines and books. Each puzzle is provided by the computer application.

Surprisingly, there’s actually a strategy for solving a Sudoku puzzle.

First, you scan. Scanning is the typical starting strategy, though it’s not limited to the beginning of a Sudoku session. You can waste time scanning at any point during the puzzle chase.

Next, it’s Marking up. If you can’t find any more numbers, then you need to mark specific numbers in the blank cells using what’s called subscripts and dots. Now you’re wasting time using the utility of a #2 pencil.

Then it gets complicated. What’s great for Mac and PC users is that Sudoku lets you waste time and gray matter simultaneously while using a $2,000 electronic device instead of a cheap paperback booklet.

Don’t you love the progress we’ve made in the past 100 years?

I’ve been walking more in the past month and came upon a middle school girl playing Sudoku at park near my parent’s home in LA. Without ever taking her eyes from the Sudoku booklet, she described the action of scanning, marking, and difficulties inherent with that particular puzzle.

She was 12 and had been there for two hours. No swings. No monkey bars. No merry-go-round. No soccer. Just a Sudoku book and a pencil and more intensity than any 12 year old should display in public.

I bought a Sudoku for Dummies book (volume 1), then downloaded a few Sudoku puzzle applications to try on my Mac. My favorite was Sudoku Companion, though it wasn’t a lasting relationship. I found myself cheating with Sudoku Susser. Neither relationship was satisfying.

After a whole day of head scratching, keyboard clanking, and listening to the sound of gray matter falling to the floor, I figured out Sudoku.

It’s a Satanically inspired puzzle designed purely to keep mankind, womankind, and the smaller versions of each from utilizing our time in an efficient and effective manner.

No more Sudoku. I just don’t have the time. I closed my laptop and headed to the park for a swing and a whirl on the merry-go-round.