Puzzling about Puzzles

17 this morning, another light covering of snow. Flurries most of the day yesterday, then sun late in the day. The moon is waning now.

Are you playing Wordle? It seems like almost everyone is, and I have to admit, I enjoy it very much. It's not a complicated word game--you're given 5 blank squares in which to type a 5-letter word. There are no hints, nothing to guide your word selection. After entering your word, the game shows you which letters are correct, and which are also in the correct place. You continue entering words with that knowledge until you get it right--or not. Some days I can get it in two or three tries, and twice I never got it at all. 

I am a word game freak, I admit. I like crosswords, cryptics, word scrambles, and Scrabble. And now I am an addict to online Scrabble. Well, not quite an addict, but I can easily lose an hour playing the game. It's always been my favorite board game, but I seldom get to play because Larry is dyslexic and a poor speller to boot, and there's rarely anyone else around to play. So when I discovered the online version, I was thrilled. Now the trick is to discipline myself to play only for certain lengths of time, and at certain times of the day. Elsewise I'd get nothing done.

Math games, though. Brrrr. I am completely puzzled by Sudoku and any other game with numbers. My brain is simply not wired that way. I have always been all right with basic math, but in junior high, when faced with algebra, I tanked. I struggled through two years of it, grateful to come out with a D at the end of each year. Which was hard for me to accept, as I was a straight A student otherwise.

                                                                        Me at 15

Then in 10th grade, I had geometry and was failing miserably until the school arranged for a tutor to come a couple nights a week. After a week or two, the light clicked on. To do geometry one has to be able to do algebra, and Mr. Davis, the young teacher who tutored me, was finally able to make algebra understandable. After that, I loved geometry and took trigonometry the following year, coming through both with flying colors. I'd started calculus and was loving it too when I quit school to get married. 

Being married required only basic math--budgeting, bills, grocery shopping. I never had need of algebra or other math again until I started college in my mid-thirties. Then, because my degree program was Secondary Education--Social Studies, I was required to take only one math class, called A Survey of Mathematics. Each chapter of the book was a different type of math, and once again, I fell in love with the subject. Economics required some math and algebra, and in my Master's program the Statistics class also recalled those old skills. But after graduation and beginning my career as a librarian, it was back to basic math and budgeting. I prepared annual budgets for branch libraries and later for that complex department I managed called "Facilities", which included everything from janitorial and building maintenance services to vehicle fleet, security, staff safety training, and a whole list of other things. 

But all of those jobs and the math skills required have never translated into a love of number puzzles. For me those will always remain foreign territory, a mystery for others to solve. I'll stick with my word problems, at least for now. 

How about you? Can you do those math/number puzzles? If you can, my hat's off to you.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.