Forget About Sudoku, Family Trees Are Much Harder To Follow.

A brain teaser for sure.

Small villages and areas do mean that everyone's connected not Mafia style but family style... Throw in a few names that would give Smith, Jones and Brown a run for their money, and suddenly, Sudoku is the easier option.

There is a certain charm about small village conversations which are peppered with hints and explanations of the people conversed about.

" You know that Susan Smith? Her aunt is a Jones of the 2nd Ave Jones and her Grandfather was a Smith married to Jones's sister, a Brown from Deutsch Schützen. "

Yip, having a schnapps is out of the question because its effect tends to break off any tendrils of a family tree. One has to be at the top of one's game to keep up because pretty soon a Smith, Jones or Brown might be of the 3rd Ave lot. Oh yes, then the faint outline of a connection needs serious thinking. Sudoko indeed.

Personally, I often get caught up in the third generation, the mention of second cousins and the fact that everyone seems to be named after a parent, although I do prefer old fashioned names over the modern ones.

Give me strong names of yesteryear even if only a handful got circled about because that modern trend of naming a child after flowers, cities and god knows what, is rather a clash when prefixed to an old family name. Blue Ivy Smith / Audi Brown / Bond Smith or imagine and Eisenberg Jones?

Names aside, there is a certain charm about so many family connections, strong or faint, because it means that people look out for each other, have each other's back and most importantly, fill a big hall at weddings...

Biggi