I've long been a crossword addict. For a long time I didn't realize that Monday's crossword (in the newspaper, of course) is always easiest, and they get harder all week through Saturday, and then Sunday is another matter altogether. They don't print a "rating" with each crossword, but this has apparently been common practice forever, so the weekly easy-to-difficult setup for the Sudoku puzzles is not really anything new; it's the same way newspapers have been presenting crosswords for years.

Coincidentally, Sudoku first came out in US newspapers very shortly after Katrina, when I was out of work, living in exile at my mama's house in NJ, and had time on my hands. I didn't get into it at first ~ had no idea how to start ~ but my 25-year-old son (living nearby in NYC) taught me the basics, and I've been hooked since. I do the Sudoku first each morning, then the crossword. In the evening, as often as not I'll look up the Guardian's daily sudoku online, print it out, and fill in my second puzzle for the day.

My wife bought me a book of Killer Sudoku several months ago, not knowing what it was going to entail. The book started out with easy-ish "killer" puzzles, so I was able to learn the ropes. However, the Guardian's Saturday Killer puzzles are much more difficult and have been beyond me: no 2-box 3's or 17's, or 3-box 6's or 24's, nowhere to start.