It started off in a small way -- just one hit a day. Something for the long ride home. For several weeks that was enough to keep me going. But then I heard that there was another source -- one that would allow me to get a fix whenever I wanted. Less embarrassing, too, than having to make sure I had easy access to a fix everyday.
I checked around my neighborhood and discovered where I could stock up. I now had something small enough, portable enough, for me to carry around in my bag, something to get me though the dreary daily commute to Neihu and back home.
Suddenly, just once a day wasn't enough. I found myself needing more, three or four a day, and obsessing about when I could get my next fix. And agonizing over the bad ones.
I knew I was in trouble when finishing my fix was more important than almost anything else.
I was forced to admit to myself -- and my friends -- that I was an addict. But then an interesting thing occurred. When I was willing to confess my own weakness it was amazing how many people came out of the woodwork to admit that they too were hooked.
Sudoku. Just a few months ago I had never heard of it. Now I can't seem to get through the day without it.
And I'm not the only one.
Who would have ever thought that the girl to whom math was the worst four-letter word in the world would turn into a woman who thinks number puzzles are fun. Certainly not Mrs. Evans, my math teacher in seventh and eight grades, who made my life such a misery (and vice versa, I'm sure).
Certainly not some friends I met up with in Singapore recently who made the mistake of telling me that they had thrown away the special sudoku puzzle magazine and CD-Rom that had been included with the Independent newspaper that they had picked up at the London airport.
Our friendship will survive -- just -- but they now know better than to come between a girl and her sudoku.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located