Sudoku solution – Los Angeles Times 28 May 2026 Expert level sudoku

Added: 2026-05-29

[00:00:03][music] [music] Hello fellow Sudokans. Welcome to Zen and the Art of the Guardian Sudoku puzzle. It's Thursday the 28th of May 2026.

[00:00:16]My Sudoku at bedtime game is my third game of the day which is going to be the Los Angeles Times expert level puzzle. I was not in a good mood at one point this afternoon. Uh, I take my cat Joanie to to the animal hospital, uh, which I've mentioned many times on this channel. I take him usually weekly, maybe it's a bit more than a week, eight days or 9 days, something like that, depending on when's convenient, um, for his treatment. And it costs a certain amount. Uh, and it's been standard. It It's cost the same amount every time for the last certainly the last uh, few months, four or five months, it's been pretty much the same cost, the same price every day. But because it's an animal hospital, they have a new influx of vets from time to time. They kind of uh they rotate and they just have new employees and some people leave, I guess, to start their own business, whatever. And uh I just leave the cat and I just say, "Oh, it's the same story as usual." And the staff there, that means the receptionists and the nurses, etc., they know what I'm talking about.

[00:01:20]I don't even need to say, they say, "I'll call you later." And I go and pick him up later. So, um because it takes a long time, takes a couple of hours for his treatment. So, I left uh the cat there today and when I went back to collect him up and they gave me the bill, it was three times the normal rate. I said, "What? What's going on here?" And uh they said, "Oh, they gave him an infusion of of uh saline." I said, "What for?" Because I do that at home. I said, "There's you know, um actually I couldn't do it this morning because I didn't have enough time, but I was going to do it in the evening." I said, "I've told you before not to do not to do that. The I can buy a bottle of saline for 50 B in Thailand, and that hospital charges me 1,000 B for the same bottle of of saline. It's so outrageous.

[00:02:10]I was so angry. I didn't pay the bill and uh I complained and uh I hardly ever complain. I'm pretty mild and I'm not aggressive or anything like that, but I was very firm today." And uh I said, "No, this is not right." And called the uh vet to explain. Anyway, uh apparently was a long procedure. I ended I had to pay uh well, it was not quite double what I normally pay, but it was a lot more. It was about an extra 80% of what I normally pay, but they the the some of it they they wiped off and they said, "Oh, they would eat the cost." And I said, "Well, yeah, I've been bringing the cat here for years and years." and uh you know like I then the receptionist said, "Oh yeah, it's a new vet that's coming. They didn't know Joanie. They didn't know his normal treatment or whatever." But I mean he should be on the records, right? I mean he's got computerized records there. So uh I was like really annoyed at that because this is a time when I don't really want to be spending money. It's a time when I need to conserve money as much as possible and I have to pay for this but um you know so I was not a happy bunny today this afternoon. Anyway, the cat's here looking fairly meek, sleepy. Uh hopefully he'll be okay tomorrow and start eating normally, etc. Uh what else is going on in the world apart from my tiny little problems? Uh people are paying too much money in Ireland. What on um electricity bills?

[00:03:37]Why? Because of bloody data centers.

[00:03:39]Whoever invented the word cloud to describe online uh to describe um computer technology which is uh used remotely via wireless was a genius at marketing. When we think of the word cloud we think of something light and fluffy and beautiful possibly that just floats in the sky and is not connected to us. But that's not what a data that's not what really happens is it? It's called a cloud but it doesn't go up to some light and fluffy thing in the sky.

[00:04:07]No, what you're actually doing is connecting via radio signals, Wi-Fi signals to uh a data center somewhere in the world, a huge place that's taking up massive amounts of electricity, water, causing noise, pollution, and of course with AI, data centers are massively increasing as well. And uh people in Ireland are just waking up to it. uh the number of the the data centers uh last year used 22% of the whole country's electricity uh more than all urban homes combined.

[00:04:43]So, and this is a a worrying trend that's happening everywhere. And uh I could see them being burnt to the ground in places when people start getting crazy. It'll be like the lites all over again. Um but this time they might be justified.

[00:04:57]Uh it's really uh getting to getting getting ridiculous. cloud is not a cloud. It's a data center somewhere ruining some people's lives somewhere.

[00:05:09]Uh not that we can't have any of them, but they need to be restricted and properly um monitored and used in the right way. I think that's the main thing. Not that we can't have any, but we need to limit and we need to do something about uh certainly about the way AI is using data centers. Should we get on with our game of Sudoku? I've been chatting long enough. This might be a tough game. We might be here all night. Start with digit one. Like I say, Los Angeles Times expert level puzzle.

[00:06:20]Eight blocks these two squares here. So in this row, it must go there. And three and nine are the last squares to go there. Last uh digits to go there, I should say. Not the last squares. Three and nine go in those squares. So this Well, we've got two blocking down, two blocking up. That's a two. And if that's three and nine, this has to be five and seven.

[00:06:56]Oh, I've got six down here already. Six up there is better.

[00:07:57]That was staring me in the face for a long time. I didn't see it.

[00:08:47]>> [snorts] >> Okay, we've got one, two, and eight here. We've got one, two, [clears throat] and eight in this column. So up there, we've got one, two, and eight in those squares. That's one, two, and eight.

[00:09:23]Uh let's look down here, then. So we've got one, two, and eight. So this is going to be six, seven and nine and disappointing disappointing disappointing.

[00:09:46]Okay. Again, what did I say? One, two, eight. Uh, anything else? So, yes, six across here. Six across there. That's a six.

[00:09:55]One, two, and eight again. So, nothing else really working here. Uh, how about that? Six.

[00:10:15]Okay, so six is in one of these two squares blocking across. Six up, six down.

[00:10:23]>> [snorts] >> Oh, I said one, two, and eight. And we've got two and eight together. So, that's a one, isn't it?

[00:12:16]Uh this is 367. So this is uh five >> [sighs] >> Okay, we've got nine blocking across here. So nine is in one of these two squares blocking across in this direction. And here we've got nine blocking across here like this. So it means that we have nine in that square and that square and that square and that square, which does put a pair of nines up there. Um, is that going to help me any though? That's the question.

[00:15:12]Probably not. Unless I've got something else. fours. Yes, four. There we go. And four there. So, that's a pair of four and nine in those squares. So, I found something at last. Thank goodness. Now, we got seven blocking across here.

[00:15:25]That's four and nine. So, that's a seven.

[00:15:28]Uh this is four and nine. So, this is three and one. One and three.

[00:15:38]Uh we got one blocking down and across here like this. So, one in one of those squares. So, that can't be one. That has to be a one. And that has to be a three over here. Four and eight for those squares, I think. No, that's not right.

[00:15:52]I've got four already. Sorry. Eight and eight and what? Two.

[00:15:58]Uh, okay. Don't have that. Oh, yeah. Cuz I've got two eight there, of course.

[00:16:01]Yeah. So, 2 eight there. So, that also means this can't be a two or eight. But I see it could be a one or a three. So, we're not going to bother um looking for a unique rectangle or anything like that just yet.

[00:17:07]Seven blocks this square. We need seven in that column. It goes there. And this should be what?

[00:17:18]Oh, three.

[00:17:21]No, not three. What on earth is missing here? One, two, three, four, five, six.

[00:17:27]Oh, it's a nine.

[00:17:29]Sorry about that. The three is there, isn't it? Yeah, I remember now. I was confusing my threes and my nines.

[00:18:00]We don't have any completed digits yet.

[00:18:38]uh uh nine in this column I guess.

[00:18:47]Uh so we got one five left there.

[00:18:50]What's missing here? Five eight. Any luck on that? No.

[00:21:14]Uh, we've got one and two in this block, but we don't have one and two in this column. So, that can't be one or two.

[00:21:21]We've got a one and two here. So, that can't be one or two. So, that means that's a pair of one and two up there.

[00:21:29]Uh, and this is eight and three, right? So that's got to be 83 as well because we've got a pair of one and two at the ends. So when the eight blocks there, it means that that's got to be the eight and that's got to be the three and that's got to be the three there.

[00:22:15]>> [clears throat] >> Okay. One blocking like this. So, one is in one of those squares. That can't be one. That's our one. That's our five.

[00:22:25]Five across here. Five down there.

[00:22:27]There's five.

[00:22:39]six blocks this square down here. So that's the six for that row. And this is a seven.

[00:22:54]Uh I said before this is five and eight I think. And so this is going to be one, two, four.

[00:23:02]And one and two are there. So that's our four.

[00:23:11][clears throat] So we have our one two here and we have one two there. So this cannot be one or two. So, I looked at it before and it was an idea of a unique rectangle, but [clears throat and cough] I can't remember why.

[00:23:32]Uh, but it certainly can't be one or two.

[00:23:41]I think it could be four. It's still no good. Still no good. All right, never mind. Don't worry about it. Forget about it for now. Still no completed digits.

[00:24:27]Okay, we have finished digit six now.

[00:24:29]That's something [snorts] and digit three and this is nine I think.

[00:25:02]So nine is finished as well. Now finally get that square.

[00:25:22]One. And we know that's a two. And we know that's a one there.

[00:25:48]Uh, what's left to get down here? Eight and five finishes the game. That's our Los Angeles Times expert level puzzle over and done with for the evening. And uh, I'll be back with some more Sudoku tomorrow morning, I guess. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye.