Sudoku solution – Los Angeles Times 24 May 2026 Expert level sudoku

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:03][music] [music] >> Hello fellow Sudokans and welcome to Zen in the Art of the Guardian Sudoku puzzle. It's Sunday the 24th of May 2026. I hope you are keeping well and keeping cool if you are in a relatively hot place.

[00:00:23]Uh here in Bangkok it is outrageously hot again. I went out to get a haircut and I just it's just at the end of my short street local road here.

[00:00:35]Uh it's a six five or six minute walk, maybe five minute walk.

[00:00:39]And by the time I got there I was actually just a puddle on the floor. I had melted into a little puddle outside the shop.

[00:00:47]>> [laughter] >> It was it is so hot outside. The sky is a gorgeous blue too.

[00:00:53]Apparently we had been forecast rain for this afternoon but uh that seems to be a lie. It's 36° now it's 3:00 p.m. and uh that's the actual that's the measured temperature but the feels like temperature is in the 40s again. It's outrageous outside. Britain has had their hottest day as well.

[00:01:12]Measuring about 30 I 30° I think so they're catching us up. Maybe I could go back to go back and live in Britain after a while because uh >> [laughter] >> I did come to live here because because I enjoy the hot weather but I don't I like it as hot as this.

[00:01:28]Um when I got to the hairdresser's I was thinking to myself ah I might be in trouble now. I've got quite a few medical issues at the moment. One of those is that I can't put my neck back so that my head is tilted in a in a backward. Imagine look at I couldn't look at the ceiling like if I was standing up uh without causing some very bad effects on me and uh in that particular hairdresser's which is where I've been going for years uh they all the hair washing section is all beds that you put you lie on and your head droops down into the sink.

[00:02:03]Uh, so I said, "Oh, I can't do that." You know, I said, "Is there a way I can kind of lean my head forward?" But of course they didn't have any sinks where you could really do that. And since they're beds, you can't you couldn't kind of lie face down on the bed. It doesn't really work. He said, "Oh, don't worry. We've got the solution."

[00:02:19]They get lots of towels and pad your head up so your head is in a horizontal position and wash your hair like that. So I was quite pleased about that. Didn't cause me any discomfort.

[00:02:32]So that's one nice thing.

[00:02:35]Uh, what's going on in the UK? I find myself agreeing with David Miliband, uh, former Labour bloke. I don't know what he does nowadays, actually.

[00:02:45]I don't know if he's still a politician or not, but I guess he is. He's a The the the Milibands are politicians from birth till death, aren't they? But I'm not sure about his actual position now.

[00:02:56]Anyway, apparently he was speaking on Radio 4 and he's saying that he's convinced that Britain needs a deep and strong relationship with the Union with the European Union. And when he was asked about whether he would advocate for rejoining the EU, he said, "What we have to do is build a national consensus about our position with the EU. I'm very happy with it as a long-term goal. I want this institutional relationship with the EU. Then I know the deal we had in 2016 is not available now. We're not going to get that back again." And yes, I absolutely agree with this. You know, um, but they're not doing anything about it.

[00:03:31]Uh, the thing is, the Brexit vote was very close. It was 48-52. And if it had been held a couple of days either way, you know, like if if the weather had been different, it could have gone 52-48 in the other direction. It's really a absolute split issue.

[00:03:48]And uh, it wasn't a Labour-Tory thing, either. It really wasn't. It was just split across lines. I mean, remember Corbyn hated trying to advocate for the EU cuz he always been for years trying to say that Britain should leave the EU.

[00:04:03]And uh >> [laughter] >> and you know, and the Tories were split.

[00:04:06]They didn't know what to do. Of course, there was Cameron and and uh um Boris uh you know, on each side. And um so to get back in the EU, it really needs to be a positive thing that the people really want to do it. And I would suggest that probably the vote would be quite similar again. There might be a small majority to go back in, but it's not enough. I actually thought at the time they should never allow this to be a 50% decision. It should be a 2/3 majority on such a such an important decision like that is when you're going in or going out. It needs to you need to have major consensus.

[00:04:45]And it really should have been a 2/3 majority. And I think as much as I would like Britain to join rejoin the EU, and I really do want that to happen.

[00:04:52]Uh and it was a very foolish thing to do to to leave.

[00:04:56]Um but they have to be aware of what they're going back into and they have to want it.

[00:05:02]Uh now the problem is that there aren't enough people still promoting the EU.

[00:05:06]Now, it's true that some people can see what's going on. They see the ridiculousness of the USA and how precarious the situation with the the relationship with the USA is. So, they're leaning more towards Europe. So, that's one thing in their favor. But people need to be promoting the EU. They need to be talking about the benefits of it.

[00:05:23]The thing about British people is you know, it's a little island, and they have an island mentality sometimes.

[00:05:29]They don't have any connecting borders with other countries in Europe. Which is apart from Northern Ireland and Ireland, of course. Uh but you know, that's it's a in some ways that's something that's always held them back. They've always had this feeling of superiority.

[00:05:45]I think it's something to do with it as well because of the days of empire, you know, and they have this little islander mentality sometimes.

[00:05:53]Uh which is ridiculous, of course.

[00:05:55]Um you know, they really should be a part of and a healthy part of the EU, but even but when they were in the EU, of course, Margaret Thatcher was such a miserable old complainer and tried to do everything negative to hold the EU back that you know, that kind of attitude is really not one that should be you know, Britain couldn't go back in and have that kind of attitude again.

[00:06:19]If it went back in, it would have to be as a proper partner and the and a country that wanted the benefits of the EU to pertain to all countries, not just give me, give me, give me, which is what they the attitude that they had before.

[00:06:32]Anyway, we'll see if they live and learn.

[00:06:35]Well, I won't cuz I won't be alive that long, but uh you know, I'm certainly not I I doubt it anyway. I doubt I'll be alive long enough to see they go back into the EU, but I do hope they do at some time.

[00:06:48]I'm not planning on dying soon, by the way. I just I just think it will take a long time.

[00:06:59]This is the Los Angeles Times expert level puzzle.

[00:07:02]Seven goes in either this square or this square, so blocks along there.

[00:07:10]And if you're new to the channel, welcome. You're wondering why I'm talking about the EU. Well, I talk about anything I want to talk about. This is my channel.

[00:07:17]So there.

[00:07:24]Nines blocking downwards and across there.

[00:07:54]>> Three blocks down here, so three is in one of these two squares blocking across and three down there if I can do the right thing on the keyboard.

[00:08:17]>> [snorts] >> All right, I'm stuck again, so let's see what we can see.

[00:09:37]We can see six blocking these two squares here, six blocking this square, so we can see a six in that column.

[00:09:49]Six across there.

[00:10:01]Missing digits here, 1 2 5. We've got 1 and 2 together, that should be a 5.

[00:10:10]Uh >> [snorts] >> Eight blocks here, there's the eight, this is a three.

[00:11:43]>> So, we've got one in one of these squares here and five here. So, one and five block up that will give me a pair of one and five in those squares there. So, this is not one or five, it's four, six, seven.

[00:11:59]And this is one and two. This is four, six, seven, so that's got to be eight, hasn't it?

[00:13:12]Three and eight here, three and eight here, so that's a pair of three and eight in those squares.

[00:13:18]Uh what else does it give us? I don't know.

[00:13:21]Let's see.

[00:13:22]Ones, mm not much.

[00:13:26]Twos, nothing really.

[00:13:32]Five.

[00:13:36]Not a dickie bird.

[00:13:39]Six.

[00:13:42]Six bucks across here, down here.

[00:13:44]So, and we've got already that's a three and eight. So, six is in one of these squares blocking back here, six across there.

[00:13:51]That will give us a six in that square.

[00:14:03]Nine.

[00:14:05]And we already have nine in those squares.

[00:15:29]>> I can see we've got a pair of fours there. I don't know if it helps much, but I can see that.

[00:15:47]And of course we got five I forgot to look at this. This was three and eight, didn't it? I forgot to check these squares out here. So we got three and eight. So this is what one four one oh one five seven, is that right?

[00:16:00]One five seven is. So we got seven here one and seven there there. So that's a five.

[00:16:05]Ah.

[00:16:06]Yeah, lucky I remember to do that now.

[00:16:08]Bit late in remembering, I know, but finally remembered at the end.

[00:16:19]And so this is one and two, is that right? Two across there there's a two there's a one.

[00:16:32]Four and nine block across that means that's a pair of four and nine and that's a seven.

[00:16:53]We're certainly not moving as fast as a bullet train today, but that's okay.

[00:16:58]As long as we get there in the end.

[00:17:52]>> Yeah, so I've still got that pair of fours there.

[00:17:55]Hasn't improved.

[00:18:51]I think it's going to be a pencil marker for me cuz it's getting very hot in this room even though the air conditioning is running full blast and the fan is on.

[00:18:59]I'm beginning to overheat and I need to go into a cooler room than this one.

[00:19:04]Uh >> [sighs] >> All right. I don't think it should be too arduous anyway because we've already found some stuff here. We've got the three and eight in those squares there.

[00:19:49]We've got the four and the nine in those squares there.

[00:19:54]We got the one and five pair there.

[00:19:57]Four and seven there.

[00:20:00]One and two there.

[00:20:04]Ones there.

[00:20:07]This is three and eight.

[00:20:10]Ah!

[00:20:12]Three eight pair. Okay.

[00:20:14]Yes. Yes. Yes. I'd forgotten about that.

[00:20:17]I think we should suddenly focus on this column here because we've got a three eight pair, haven't we? So, let's see what else we need. So, we've got three and eight.

[00:20:27]Um so, we're looking for one two Obviously, the ones are here.

[00:20:32]One two five seven. Is that right? One two five seven?

[00:20:49]Huh.

[00:20:56]One two five seven. I think it is right.

[00:20:59]Uh so, obviously, the ones go there.

[00:21:13]>> No, so it wasn't the answer to the game anyway. I thought that might be the uh answer that we needed, but I don't think it is.

[00:21:24]Seven's in a pair up there.

[00:21:28]I had a pair of nines here, I seem to remember.

[00:21:39]Fours are in those squares because we've got four blocking here, here, and there, so that's why it's a pair of fours.

[00:22:12]Ah, pair of one and three here. Okay.

[00:22:19]Yes, we got one and three blocking up there, one and three across there, so there was a pair of one and three.

[00:22:24]That's what I didn't spot.

[00:22:25]Didn't spot the pair of one and three.

[00:22:27]Okay, so we get rid of that four, and now this is the only place for a four, and this is the only place for a two, and this is the only place for a nine, so that really helped us. Since the four goes there, the nine goes there, and the nine is in that square, and not in that square.

[00:22:44]And uh any more fours? Well, we've got a pair of fours there, and fours there.

[00:22:53]How we doing now?

[00:23:26]>> And so six blocking like this. Now that's the only place for a six.

[00:23:31]Remember that's a pair of three and eight. So that's the only place for a six now and then six blocking down and across and across there gives us the six in that square.

[00:24:25]I'm not sure that there are any more pairs to be had.

[00:24:33]I think not.

[00:24:34]And so we'll just put in the other digits. Okay, so we got one blocking across there.

[00:24:40]So one in those squares there. 1 2 3 4 five blocking across there.

[00:24:47]That's our five.

[00:24:50]Uh this block here 1 2 blocking across there.

[00:25:02]>> Three.

[00:25:14]5 6 7 8 9 Okay, 1 2 3 4 5 don't really know.

[00:25:30]Seven blocking like this.

[00:25:36]And 1 2 blocking like that.

[00:25:42]And I think that's everything, isn't it?

[00:25:44]So, we got 1 2 and 5 here, three numbers in three squares. So, this can't be a 5.

[00:25:49]It has to be a 4, which gives us a 5 over there and a 1 in that square and a 5 in that square.

[00:25:57]Get rid of those 5s. We get a 5 there.

[00:26:00]There's our 2. There's our 1. There's our 5.

[00:26:05]And a 5 up there.

[00:26:08]So, we get rid of all of those candidate 5s that we don't need now.

[00:26:17]Okay.

[00:26:34]Oh, sorry.

[00:26:35]Trying to get rid of you, not add an extra one.

[00:26:39]Right, where are we now?

[00:26:40]>> [sighs] >> 4 necessary there.

[00:26:48]Unnecessary there.

[00:26:51]And no two there either.

[00:27:24]So, a nice game I think from the Los Angeles Times there. Couple of things that needed to spot there.

[00:27:30]And uh Anyway, that's one way of finishing it.

[00:27:34]You may have done it in a different way.

[00:27:35]Thanks for joining me this Sunday on this outrageously hot Sunday afternoon.

[00:27:40]Uh Um Don't know what I'm going to do now.

[00:27:44]Just I think I'm going to go and sit in the refrigerator. Take care. Bye-bye.